ZAHN, THEODOR. - Protestant exegete and patrologist, b. at Mörs (Rhineland) on 10 Oct. 1838, d. at Erlangen on 15 March 1933.
He studied theology at Basel (1855), then at Erlangen, where J. Christian Konrad Hofmann (1810-77) exercised a lasting influence on him; then he was a tutor at Göttingen (1865), a lecturer (1868), and an extraordinary professor (1871). He succeeded Hofmann (1878) at Erlangen, and was afterward holder of that chair, except in 1888-92, when he was a full professor at Leipzig. Emeritus in 1909, he worked until the age of 95. His studies turned first to patristics, then to the investigation of the biblical canon, to textual criticism, to introduction, and then to commentaries on the New Testament.
Many of his works have lasting value, for richness of erudition, shrewdness of investigation, and clear exposition of solutions. Z. appreciates the very ancient tradition of the Church, defends the full authenticity and historicity of every passage of the New Testament, and, what is rarer, is a great connoisseur of the history of exegesis; qualities that make him valuable also for Catholics.
However, from Hofmann, the true head of the Erlangen school, Z. also inherited a serious limitation. According to that school, all theology has at its foundations the experience of spiritual rebirth, also called saving experience (Heilserfahrung), a concept descending from Pietism, from Schleiermacher, and ultimately from Luther. However, in that theological "I" the supernatural truth according to the most important tenets is not given immediately, unlike Schleiermacher's opinion, but it is necessary to make an inference, called "regress," compared by Hofmann to the one physicists make in order to discover the laws of nature starting from natural phenomena. The regress is made thus: the experience of rebirth, which according to Lutheran dogma makes us absolutely certain of our salvation, is brought about through the mediator Christ, who took upon himself the hell we deserved, and who, full of the Holy Spirit, makes us new creatures of the Father. Thus one concludes to a "prehistory" of the saving experience in the Trinity. Reflecting, we discover through further inferences that there is a whole "saving history" (Heilsgeschichte), lived by great figures with vivid religious experiences and so connected as to constitute a complex (Zusammenhang) of "saving tradition"; it follows that the past up to today is the presupposition of our "saving experience" and that the future, up to the eschatological times, will be its fulfillment (Erfüllung). From this derived a certain method of theological work: that tradition which is saving must be venerated and sought by every means, and with equal vigor that which is its senseless rigidification must be repudiated: each one must strive to elevate and broaden his theological knowledge so as to understand the tenets of "saving history," and for this he must incorporate the history of exegesis into his biblical commentaries. If all this is good, there follows, however, a less good side, if one compares the method of Hofmann and of Z. with the analytical method of Catholic fundamental theology. This too proceeds from an experience, that of the Catholic Church of today in the believing person, and broadens the horizon until it arrives at the miracle of the existence of such a Church, one and holy, amid so many persecutions and defections; from this it draws its conclusions, in order to arrive at Christ, the living divine bond in the Church, and at his living and traditional magisterium. But here there is a supremely important difference: that magisterium instituted by Christ is not intermittent, with religious experiences more or less vivid according to the individuals, an error already discarded by the Church in the struggle against Montanism (v.) and afterward renewed by the Protestants, but it has the irresistible stability of a saving institution. So the tradition of the Church must not be divided in two by declaring, according to Luther's objective but limited experience, which becomes the measure of all theological truths, one part living and another an abusive rigidification, as Z. does in his biblical commentaries, striving, for example, to prove that "the Mary" (he knows no more respectful expression than this article "the") was not virgo post partum, and that from a normal marriage with Joseph she had other children (v. BRETHREN OF JESUS), while nevertheless conceding that the philological expressions could have the sense defended by Catholics, deciding in favor of contempt for that "rigidified" tradition, which he concedes is already found in St. Justin Martyr (v.). The same holds naturally for other passages of the New Testament, which lend themselves to controversies with the Catholic Church. Z. is more moderate than other Protestants; but he always adopts the tradition that is at the service of the Erlangen experience, not the true tradition in itself. With Catholics, therefore, he was in constant polemic, as he also was with the "critics." Nor are there lacking in Z. somewhat artificial solutions to many biblical problems. His eminent merits remain for the defense of the authenticity of the biblical writings, and of the undivided tradition, fundamental for the Catholic faith.
Works up to 1918 listed in Zahn-Bibliographie (Leipzig 1918). Patristic works: Marcellus von Ancyra (Gotha 1867); Der Hirt des Hermas (ibid. 1868); Ignatius von Antiochien (ibid. 1873); he was co-editor (with O. v. Gebhardt and A. Harnack) of the series Patrum apostolicorum opera (2 vols., Leipzig 1876-78, editio minor 1877, 6th ed. 1920), in which he published in critical edition Ignati et Polycarpi epist., martyria, fragmenta (Leipzig 1876); he conceived and published the important series Forschungen zur Gesch. des neutest. Kanons und der altkirchl. Liter. (Erlangen-Leipzig 1881-1929; 10 vols., for the most part written by Z.); Das apost. Symbolum (ibid. 1893); Skizzen aus dem Leben der alten Kirche (ibid. 1894; 3rd ed. 1908). - Exegetical works (also on the apocrypha): Acta Johannis (Erlangen 1880); Gesch. des neutest. Kanons (2 vols., ibid. 1888-92); Das Evang. des Petrus (ibid. 1893); Einleitung in das Neue Testam. (2 vols., Leipzig 1897-99; 3rd ed. ibid. 1906-1907); Grundriss der Gesch. des neutest. Kanons (ibid. 1901; 2nd ed. ibid. 1904); he directed the Kommentar zum Neuen Testament (18 vols., Leipzig 1903), within which Z. gave the commentaries on Mt. (1903; 4th ed. 1922), Gal. (1905; 4th ed. 1922), Jn. (1908; 6th ed. 1921), Rom. (1910; 3rd ed. 1925), Lk. (1913; 4th ed. 1920), Acts (2 vols., 1920-21; 4th ed. 1927), Apoc. (2 vols., 1927); Grundriss der Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Leipzig 1928); Grundriss der neutest. Theologie (ibid. 1928; 2nd ed. 1932); Grundriss der Gesch. des Leben Jesu (ibid. 1928).