Bernhard Weiss, Das Leben Jesu. 2 vols. Berlin, 1882. See also Das Markusevangelium, 1872; Das Matthäusevangelium, 1876; and the Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Theologie, 5th ed., 1888. Bernhard Weiss was born in 1827 at Königsberg, where he qualified as Privat-Docent in 1852. In 1863 he went as Ordinary Professor to Kiel, and was called to Berlin in the same capacity in 1877.
Among the distinctly liberal Lives of Jesus of an earlier date, that of W. Krüger-Velthusen (Elberfeld, 1872, 271 pp.) might be mentioned if it were not so entirely uncritical. Although the author does not hold the Fourth Gospel to be apostolic he has no hesitation in making use of it as an historical source.
There is more sentiment than science, too, in the work of M. G. Weitbrecht, Das Leben Jesu nach den vier Evangelien, 1881.
A weakness in the treatment of the Johannine question and a want of clearness on some other points disfigures the three-volume Life of Jesus of the Paris professor, E. Stapfer, which is otherwise marked by much acumen and real depth of feeling. Vol. i. Jésus-Christ avant son ministère (Fischbacher, Paris, 1896); vol. ii. Jésus-Christ pendant son ministère (1897); vol. iii. La Mort et la résurrection de Jésus-Christ (1898).
F. Godet writes of “The Life of Jesus before His Public Appearance” (German translation by M. Reineck, Leben Jesu vor seinem öffentlichen Auftreten. Hanover, 1897).
G. Längin founds his Der Christus der Geschichte und sein Christentum (The Christ of History and His Christianity) on a purely Synoptic basis. 2 vols., 1897-1898.
The English Life of Jesus Christ, by James Stalker, D. D. (now Professor of Church History in the United Free Church College, Aberdeen), passed through numberless editions (German, 1898; Tübingen, 4th ed., 1901).
Very pithy and interesting is Dr. Percy Gardner's Exploratio Evangelica. A Brief Examination of the Basis and Origin of Christian Belief. 1899; 2nd ed., 1907.
A work which is free from all compromise is H. Ziegler's Der geschichtliche Christus (The Historical Christ). 1891. For this reason the five lectures, delivered in Liegnitz, out of which it is composed, attracted such unfavourable attention that the Ecclesiastical Council took proceedings against the author. (See the Christliche Welt, 1891, pp. 563-568, 874-877.)
Holtzmann, Neutestamentliche Einleitung, 2nd ed., 1886. Weizsäcker declares himself in the Theologische Literaturzeitung for 1882, No. 23, and Das apostolische Zeitalter, 2nd ed., 1890.