Wilhelm
Martin Leberecht De Wette
(1780-1849)
Doctor of Theology and Professor in the
University of Basel
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"However strongly the historic
standpoint is to be asserted, we must yet insist also that the work contains
an ideally prophetic element, which has force even for us."
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
Edward Robinson
(On the "end of the world" prophecy)
"One is that of De Wette and others, who do not hesitate to regard our Lord
as here announcing, that the coming of the Messiah to the judgment of the
last day would take place immediately after the fall of Jerusalem. This
idea, according to De Wette, is clearly expressed by our Lord, both here and
elsewhere ; and was likewise held by Paul. But as the day of judgment has
not yet come, it follows, either that our Lord, if correctly reported, was
himself mistaken, and spoke here of things which he knew not; or else, that
the sacred writers have not truly related his discourse. The latter horn of
this dilemma is preferred by De Wette. According to him the disciples
entertained the idea of their Lord's return with such vividness of faith and
hope, that they overlooked the relations of time, which Jesus himself had
left indefinite; and they thus connected his final coming immediately with
his coming to destroy Jerusalem. They give here, therefore, their own
conception of our Lord's language, rather than the language itself as it
fell from his lips. They mistook his meaning; they acted upon this mistake
in their own belief and preaching ; and in their writings have perpetuated
it to the world throughout all time."
(The Berean,
811-816)
Norton
"The ascription of a symbolical character to the Gospel history
is a characteristic of the speculations of De Wette." (Remarks
on the German School (PDF), p. 301)
Benjamin Warfield (1)
The Preterist, which holds that all, or nearly all, the prophecies of the book were fulfilled in the early Christian ages, either in the history of the Jewish race up to A.D. 70, or in that of Pagan Rome up to the fourth or fifth century. With Hentensius and Salmeron as forerunners, the Jesuit Alcasar (1614) was the father of this school. To it belong Grotius, Bossuet, Hammond, LeClerc, Wetstein, Eichhorn, Herder, Hartwig, Koppe, Hug, Heinrichs, Ewald, De Wette, Bleek, Reuss, Reville, Renan, Desprez, S. Davidson, Stuart, Lucke, Dusterdieck, Maurice, Farrar, etc. " (Revelation)
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