BLASS, FRIEDRICH. - Classical philologist and New Testament scholar, b. at Osnabrück on 22 Jan. 1843, d. at Halle on 5 March 1907. A lecturer in classical philology at Königsberg in 1874, he was full professor there at Kiel from 1876 and at Halle from 1892. A most learned Hellenist, he illustrated Hellenistic oratory from Alexander to Augustus (Berlin 1865), then Attic oratory (3 vols., Leipzig 1868-80; 2nd ed. 1887-98). He published in the Teubner collection (Leipzig) the critical text of many Attic orators and of other Greek classics. A keen but sometimes adventurous critic, his textual reconstructions are often arbitrary. He set out his principles in Hermeneutik und Kritik, Paläographie, Buchwesen und Handschriftenkunde (Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, by I. Müller, I, Munich 1886, 2nd ed. 1892). He reworked the first part (phonetics and morphology) of R. Kühner's grammar (3rd ed. 1890-92).
Devoting himself to the philological-critical elucidation of the New Testament, he gave an original but short-lived solution to the textual problem of Luke's writings, which he said were published in a double authentic recension.
He saw the first recension of the Acts in the Western text ("Roman form"), and, in the received canonical text, a reworking, more concise and elegant, made by Luke after his return to the East (Acta Apostolorum sive Lucae ad Theophilum liber alter: Editio philologica apparatus critica, commentario perpetuo, indice verborum illustrata, Göttingen 1895; Acta Apost... secundum formam, quae videtur, romanam, Leipzig 1896). In the 3rd Gospel (Evangelium sec. Lucam sive Lucae ad Theophilum liber prior secundum editionem, quae videtur, romanam, ibid. 1897), on the other hand, the Western text would be a reworking that Luke made at Rome. B.'s hypothesis on the Lucan writings was adopted, in whole or in part, by J. Dräsecke, O. Zöckler, E. Nestle, J. Belser, J. Haussleiter, E. Grafe, Th. Zahn, H. Vogels, V. Weber, F. C. Conybeare, G. Salmon, D. Plooy; but it was and is rejected by the majority of critics.
In the synoptic question, B. maintains the "mutual dependence" of Mark-Luke-Matthew (Die Entstehung und der Charakter unserer Evangelien, Leipzig 1907). He also devised a theory on the rhythm of literary prose (Die Rhythmen der aritischen Kunstprosa, ibid. 1901; Die Rhythmen der asiatischen und römischen Kunstprosa, ibid. 1905), on the basis of which he elucidated the text of Hebr. (Barnabau, Brief an die Hebräer, Halle 1903) and various passages of the Pauline epistles. He published a critical edition of the 1st and 4th Greek Gospels (Evang. sec. Ioannem cum variae lectionis delecta, Leipzig 1901; Evt. sec. Matthaeum..., ibid. 1902). His grammar of New Testament Greek (Göttingen 1896, 2nd ed. 1902) was expanded by A. Debrunner (ibid. 1921; 6th ed. 1931, 7th ed. 1943). A "conservative" Protestant, he fought the "liberal" or rationalist tendency (Die Heilige Schrift und die Evangelische Kirche, Berlin 1900, 2nd ed. 1902).