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    iA/e &nd Writings of Herder* $3B

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    3 n 2

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    : Account Of Herder's Life And Writings.

    kind of Inconsistency , ag if a modern Oermatl wef £ to go back to the times of Ottfried and UJpfoalas for an explanation of the foreign idioms that have beers introduced iato his language in the course of the present century . " Stseh was Header ' s view of the deficiency most seticnisly felt in the actual means of interpreting the language of the New Testament . That deficiency he c ?« 5 ficeiv ^ d he had found a rn eaits of at le ast partially supplying , in the

    recently published translation of the Zend-Avesta , by Anquetil du Perron * Whether this was actually a work of Zoroasteir ' s Herder regarded as of little moment z it exhibited the liturgy of the Parsees , as it still subsisted in their tetuples in Quzerat , and might therefore be considered as an authentic remnant of a philosophical aod religious system which had once prevailed extensively over all the East , and had strongly tinctured the phraseology of Jewish writers and teachers in the period subsequent to the Babylonish

    captivity D He applied to this source for the elucidation of certain peculiarities in the language of St . John ; which had been presumed by previous interpreters to have originated in a spirit of opposition to the errors of Cerinthus and the Gnostics , But the language of John rather favours those errors than confutes them . Hence we must reject , as Unfounded , this whole

    supposition of the controversial intention of that language . It was the language in which the Apostle naturally expressed himself on religious subjects ; it was the language of his age and nation . The parties , foir whose more immediate instruction his Gospel was written , were most probably the disciples of John the Baptist * The Apostle dwelt at Ephesus ; in the same city s the followers of the Baptist abounded ; and , as this sect always very strongly inclined to the doctrines of the Chaldaean philosophy , the Evangelist could not more forcibly address them than in a language with which ( they were familiar *

    With principles of interpretation drawn from this Oriental Source , Herded most decidedly opposed what he considered to be the withering and destructive system of modern criticism ., He seetns to have thought both Orthodox and Socinian commentators too verbal and analytic in their interpretations * His own views , however , are very difficult to ascertain ,, and are justly chargeable with vaguenesSo

    " My object , " says lie , has been to furnish illustrations not off words , but of the sense , of the general and connected sense of the New Testament ,, andy in this manner , to shew that the terms Rede nip tion , Saviour ,, Christ D Angel , Word , Heaven , & c ., have a more elevated and important meaning tthar & it is now the fashion with our rational and Socinianizing divines to allow them . " He thought the Scriptures should be considered , in their spirit , as a

    whole-Ci The sap , as it oozes from tine earth , before it is absorbed by the tree and becomes its vital juice , is quite a different thing from that whicSi nourishes the beauty of the bough and the fruit . When , instead of enjoying these , and refreshing' thyself beneath the shadowy growth of the tree , thou wotildst peel its hark , and bare its roots in the earth , to see how they spread and collect the sap—woe to th y murderous hand , thy slavish toil ! No one laments more than I < lo the necessity of tall this explaining and quoting" . Forgive me ,

    reader , the ungrateful task . Dwell ! not on the rind and the husk , hot hasten to the sap , the sense , the truth . The New Testament is mot z & system for ( libseetioai and demonstration , hut lor conviction and inward feeling . Infinity and simplicity in all Its views ! In all its parts , one ! in every single |> art , cmhracing all ! Whoso , therefore , reads this book in the simplest point of view , and with the greatest unity of feeling , re-ads it Qhe best manner , and will

    Ia/E &Nd Writings Of Herder* $3b

    iA / e & nd Writings of Herder * $ 3 B

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 835, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/35/