GREGORY, CASPAR RENÉ. - Protestant theologian and critic, b. in Philadelphia (U.S.A.) on 6 Nov. 1846. He studied there and at Princeton in the Presbyterian Seminary. He devoted himself to New Testament criticism and became in 1884 a Privatdozent, in 1889 an extraordinary professor and in 1891 an honorary professor at Leipzig. At the age of 68 he enlisted as a volunteer in the war and fell on 9 Apr. 1917 at Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne. He was highly esteemed as a man for his sociable disposition. He collaborated with C. Tischendorf, after whose death he composed, in 18 years of work, the Prolegomena to the 8th ed. (critica maior) of L. F. C. Tischendorf's Testamentum Graece, Leipzig 1884-94.
These Prolegomena, considerably enlarged with new materials acquired on many journeys, he then published under the title: Textkritik des Neuen Testaments, Leipzig 1900-1909. He introduced a new designation of the New Testament manuscripts. With regard to the history of the text of the New Testament he comes very close to the theory of Westcott-Hort; according to G. the Vatican and Sinaitic codices represent a good text of the 2nd century, almost equivalent to the original text. He wanted to publish a critical edition of the New Testament, but was prevented from doing so by death. How he conceived this edition is shown by his work Vorschläge für eine kritische Ausgabe des Neuen Testaments (Leipzig 1911). The text, according to his statements, would have been little different from the text of Westcott-Hort.
Other works: Canon and text of the New Testament (Edinburgh 1907); Das Freer-Logion (Leipzig 1908); Einleitung in das Neue Testament (ibid. 1909); Wellhausen und Johannes (ibid. 1911); Die Coridiethi-Evangelien (with G. Beermann, ibid. 1913); Zu Fuss in Bibellanden (published by H. Guthe (ibid. 1919).