During the last century and a half the Holy Scriptures have
been subjected to an immense amount of painstaking scientific research.
A vast body of new knowledge has come to light as a result, and the
historico- critical method reigns supreme in the realm of biblical
interpretation. Archaeology, the history of religions, textual, literary,
and form criticism, all played a part in the movement toward a more scientific understanding of the biblical writings. Yet for some time
past there has been a growing feeling in many quarters that all this is
not enough. Hermeneutics has become a fashionable word once more in
the theological vocabulary.The theological revival which is spreading through the churches
has brought with it a renewed concern to discover the biblical basis
for the unity of the Church. Biblical studies are tending to delve
more and more into the meaning of the theological terminology of
Scripture itself. There is every indication that some of the deepest
problems of biblical theology can be resolved by means of a semantic
investigation of key words in both the Old and New Testaments. It is
in this connection that the labors of the German theologian Hermann
Cremer (18341903) take on fresh interest and significance. I shall
endeavor to show how his theological studies of the language of the New
Testament helped prepare the way for Gerhard Kittelas monumental
Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament. When one speaks of the
part which Cremer has played in developing a better method for biblical
theology, he needs also to mention the names of August Tholuck, Martin
Kaehler, and Adolf Schlatter.Tholuck is remarkable in that he anticipated many of the
theological developments of our own era. He stressed the theological
value of the Old Testament at a time when it was being generally depreciated. He had a keen appreciation for the exegetical skill of the
Reformers and sought to make their writings more widely- known. Calvin's
New Testament commentaries were republished with Tholuck as editor.
Tholuck's theology had an emancipating effect on a whole generation of
German theological students, and his influence extended to America and
Britain. The effect was comparable in some respects to that produced in
this century by Karl Barth's critique of liberal Protestantism. Tholuck,
too, was the author of a commentary on Romans which was the signal for a new movement. Tholuck's connections with Pietism are well -known, yet few
realize that he was a Church theologian as well. The relation between
Tholuck and Cremer was that of teacher and pupil, and it is Tholuck's
influence upon Cremer in his formative years that merits our chief
consideration.Cremer and his friends Kaehler and Schlatter do not form "a school"
in the strictest sense. Each was an individualist. They differed in
background, temperament, and outlook. Cremer and Kaehler were Lutheran;
Schlatter was Reformed. But they had this in common; they were all
biblical theologians. They combined confidence in the biblical witness
with thoroughgoing historical research. This was the distinctive and
significant feature of their hermeneutics. They understood theology to be
a scientific discipline. Because they differed from one another, these
three scholars could work in a reciprocal, complementary relationship
which provided mutual correction and encouragement. Their collaboration
ultimately found expression in the periodical Beitraege zur Foerderung
christlicher Theologie. In their opposition to liberalism they were not
combatting the historico- critical method but a one -sided emphasis on
this method, a tendency for autonomous man to set himself up as judge
over Scripture. This was what kept Cremer and his associates apart
from the exegesis of F.C. Baur, from the idea of evolution as a hermeneutical canon, from the Ritschlian theology, and from Harnack with his
"essence of Christianity". Thus they stood aloof from all the major
theological movements of the latter half of the nineteenth century. By
refusing to be liberals they did not thereby fall back into a historical
rationalism or a biblicist fundamentalism. Rather, they are forerunners
of that biblical theology which has been characteristic of the theological
reawakening in Europe since World War I and in America since World Wear II.I have not attempted to write a full biography of Greiner, nor
do I feel obliged to assess his theological position in relation to his
famous contemporaries, nor am I interested in his role in German church
politics. These matters have been adequately dealt with elsewhere. My
chief concern is with his Biblisch theologisches Woerterbuch, for therein
lies the heart of his theology, and in it, too, is to be found the key to
his method of interpreting Scripture
