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 privatdocent, in 1889 an extraordinary professor, and in 1891 an honorary professor at Leipzig. At the age of 68 he volunteered for the war and fell on 9 Apr. 1917 at Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne. He was highly esteemed as a man for his sociable nature. He collaborated with C. Tischendorf, and after his death 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, notably expanded with new materials acquired on many journeys, he later published under the title: Textkritik des Neuen Testaments, Leipzig 1900-1909. He introduced a new nomenclature for New Testament manuscripts. Regarding the history of the text of the New Testament he closely approaches the theory of Westcott-Hort; according to G., the Vatican and Sinaitic codices represent a good 2nd-century text, almost equivalent to the original text. He intended to publish a critical edition of the New Testament, but was prevented by death. His conception of this edition is shown in his work Vorschläge für eine kritische Ausgabe des Neuen Testaments (Leipzig 1911). The text, according to his statements, would have differed little 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 Cordelith-Evangelien (with G. Beermann, ibid. 1913); Zu Fuss in Bibellanden (published by H. Guthe, ibid. 1919).