Johann Gottfried von Herder's Biblical Studies


Method of Biblical Studies

Herder advocated a critical historical approach to biblical texts. (p. 236)


Bible is Human

Menschlich muß man die Bibel lesen: denn sie ist ein Buch durch Menschen für Menschen geschrieben: menschlich ist die Sprache, menschlich die äußern Hülfsmittel, mit denen sie geschrieben und aufbehalten ist; menschlich endlich ist ja der Sinn, mit dem sie gefaßt werden kann, jedes Hülfsmittel, das sie erläutert, so wie der ganze Zweck und Nutzen, zu dem sie angewendet werden soll. (Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend 145) 

[One must read the Bible in a human way: for it is a book written by human beings for human beings: human is the language, human are the outer means with which it was written and preserved; human, in the end, is indeed the sense with which it can be grasped, every means that serves its interpretation, as well as the entire purpose and use to which it is supposed to be put.] (p. 237)

Christoph Bultmann, "Herder’s Biblical Studies" in  A Companion to the Works of Johann Gottfried Herder. Edited by Hans Adler and Wulf Koepke. New York: Camden House, 2009. 






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