JOHN SPENCER AND THE PERILS OF SACRED PHILOLOGY

In 1650 the Bible's status as infallible revelation--unique guide to salvation and universal history of mankind's origins--appeared secure to most educated Europeans. True, more than a century of confessional struggle and theological debate had exposed scripture to unprecedented scrutiny and proliferating interpretations. Yet, amid the wrangling, scarcely any author questioned its divine authorship or historical reliability. Meanwhile, biblical scholars were at work shoring up the foundations of scriptural authority with the tools of Renaissance philology. Stolzenberg looks at an important but puzzling episode in the reappraisal of biblical authority and of the relationship between Israel and Egypt: the work of John Spencer (1630-93), biblical scholar, master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and dean of Ely Cathedral.