Caspar René Gregory (November 6, 1846 – April 9, 1917) was an American-German

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Life

Gregory was born to Mary Jones and Henry Duval Gregory in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He was the brother of the American zoologist Emily Ray Gregory. After completing his bachelor's degree at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1864, he studied theology at two Presbyterian seminaries: in 1865—1867 at the

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) is a Reformed Presbyterian seminary in Point Breeze, Pennsylvania. RPTS is a ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and was founded in 1810, making it the fifth old ...

, Philadelphia, and in 1867–1873 at the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

. In 1873, he decided to continue his studies at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

under

Constantin von Tischendorf Constantin is an Aromanian language, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian language, Megleno-Romanian and Romanian language, Romanian male given name. It can also be a surname. For a list of notable people called Constantin, see Constantine (name). See ...

, to whose work on textual criticism of the New Testament he had been referred by his teacher Ezra Abbot. He administered the scientific legacy of Tischendorf, who died in 1874, and continued his work. In 1876, he obtained his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

with a dissertation titled ''

Grégoire Grégoire is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname / Family name * Alexandre Grégoire (1922–2001), Haitian painter * Antonina Grégoire (1914-1952), Belgian commercial engineer, feminist and communist, ...

the priest and the revolutionist''. The first examiner for it was the historian Georg Voigt. He completed his post-doctoral work in Leipzig in 1884, and became an associate professor in 1889 and a full honorary professor in 1891. That same year, he was elected an International Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He apparently had several doctorates: Karl Josef Friedrich (p. 130) even mentions five doctorates in his biography of Gregory. At least one doctorate in theology obtained in Leipzig in 1889 is attested. In June 1901, he received an honorary

doctorate of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (i.e., Christian theology and ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the English-speaking world than elsewhere. In the United Kin ...

from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. On August 11, 1914, Gregory, who had been a citizen of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

since 1881, enlisted in the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

as its oldest wartime volunteer. He became a second lieutenant in November 1916 and died on April 9, 1917, in a

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile ...

Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Population See also * Communes of the Aisne department The following is a list of the 796 communes in the French department of Ais ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

.on the western front. Gregory specialized in New Testament

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...

. He organized biblical manuscripts into a classification system (''Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments'', 1908) which continues to be in use throughout the scholarly world today. He is also credited with being the first to notice the consistent medieval practice (called Gregory's Law or Gregory's Rule) of collating parchment leaves so that grain side faced grain side and flesh side flesh side. He was also interested in

biblical canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek , meaning 'ruler, rule' or 'measu ...

Works

Books

* * * * * * * * *

Journal articles

References

Literature

* . * * Karl Josef Friedrich, ''Caspar Rene Gregory'', in: ''Sächsische Lebensbilder'', Vol. I, Dresden 1930, p. 125-131. * Ernst Jünger, ed. (1928), "Caspar René Gregory", in: ''Die Unvergessenen''. Berlin: Andermann. p. 111 ff. * Bruno Hartung (1929), "Caspar René Gregory", in: ''Das Jahr des Herrn: Kalender für die evangelischen Gemeinden Leipzigs''. 5. Jg., p. 36-38.

External links

From the Papers of Caspar René Gregory.
In "Of the Incomparable Treasure of the Holy Scriptures: An Exhibit of Historic Bible-related Materials from the Collection of the Harvard Divinity School Library", October 1998 *
Biographical sketch in ''The Biblical World'', Vol. 38 (1911), pp. 350-354

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Caspar Rene 1846 births 1917 deaths 19th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German Protestant theologians 19th-century male writers American biblical scholars American Christian theologians American emigrants to Germany German biblical scholars German male non-fiction writers People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War German military personnel killed in World War I German papyrologists Leipzig University alumni New Testament scholars Princeton Theological Seminary alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Writers from Philadelphia International members of the American Philosophical Society