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Lachmann - Textual Critic

LACHMANN, KARL KONRAD FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1793—1851), German philologist and critic, was born at Brunswick on the 4th of March 1793. He studied at Leipzig and Gottingen, devoting himself mainly to philological studies. In 1815 he joined the Prussian army as a volunteer chasseur and accompanied his detachment to Paris, but did not encounter the enemy. In 1816 he became an assistant master in the Friedrich Werder gymnasium at Berlin, and a privat teacher at the university. The same summer he became one of the principal masters in the Friedrichs-Gymnasium of Konigsberg, where he assisted his colleague, the Germanist Friedrich Karl Kopke (1785—1865) with his edition of Rudolf von Ems’ Barlaam und Josaphat (1818), and also assisted his friend in a contemplated edition of the works of Walther von der Vogeiweide. In January 1818 he became professor extraordinarius of classical philology in the university of Konigsberg, and at the same time began to lecture on Old German grammar and the Middle High German poets. 

He devoted himself during the following seven years to an extraordinarily minute study of those subjects, and in 1824 obtained leave of absence in order that he might search the libraries of middle and south Germany for further materials. In 1825 Lachmann was nominated extraordinary professor of classical and German philology in the university of Berlin (ordinary professor 1827); and in 1830 he was admitted a membef of the Academy of Sciences. The remainder of his laborious and fruitful life as an author and a teacher was uneventful. He died in the 1850s.

Lachmann, who was the translator of the first volume of  Muller’s Sagabibliothek des skandfnavischen Altertums (1816), is a figure of considerable importance in the history of German philology (see Geschichte der germanischen Philologie, 1870). Through his writing, Lachmann had already laid down the rules of textual criticism and elucidated the phonetic and metrical principles of Middle High German in a manner which marked a distinct advance in that branch of investigation. 

Lachmann’s Betrachtungen fiber Homer’s Ilias, first published in the Abhandlungen of the Berlin Academy in 1837 and 1841, in which he proposed to show that the Iliad consists of sixteen independent "layers " variously enlarged and interpolated, have had considerable influence on modern Homeric criticism, although’ his views are no longer accepted. In other words, despite achieving fame for his theory, it was later shown to be anti-historical.

Lachman and the New Testament

His smaller edition of the New Testament appeared in 1831, 3rd ed. 1846; the larger, in two volumes, in 1842—1850. The plan of Lachmann’s edition, was a modification of the unaccomplished project of Bentley. He sought to restore the most ancient readings to the Bible. But we should not miss his underlying premise: 1. That the present Bible (used in the 1800) was itself corrupt and unreliable, and 2 that Lachmann could find a more historically accurate Bible. That was a very bold claim, especially considering that the Bible in use at the time (the German Bible of Martin Luther, which is the same text as the KJV/Textus Receptus) had been used by Christians for 1800 years. 

What were the implications ? That those Christians had died in vain believing in a Gospel which was counterfeit ? There is no evidence that Lachmann Ever made a profession of true faith nor that he ever accepted the Deity of Jesus Christ nor the message of Salvation by Faith alone through Christ Jesus. On the other hand, there is a great deal of evidence from Lachmann himself, to support the plain fact that Lachmann attacked the authenticity of the Received Biblical Text every chance he had. It was also Lachmann who began promoting ancient manuscripts historically rejected by the Early Christians as being the "authentic" Bible, namely the corrupted "Bibles" of Origen and Eusebius. 

When Tischendorf began his work on his own New Testament (where he would consciously depart from the Textus Receptus in his 8th Critical Edition, he had only continued what Lachmann had started a few decades earlier. Tischendorf even followed Lachmann to try to work with him, and the two of them had a falling out). 

Sources: Ravenous Wolves: Textual Criticism and the Abandonement of the Reformation- A History of HIgher Criticism and German Theology by Lichtenberger. In addition, the works of the subjects of this biography, and Early Editions of Ency. Brit. 

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