Known best for his edition of the Greek New Testament, Johann Albrecht Bengel, a Greek Scholar and Lutheran pietist clergyman, was born on June 24, 1687. Bengel spent his early years devoted to the works of Spinoza and Aristotle while he only dabbled in religious studies. It was not until after he obtained his degree that he devoted his life to theology. Even with an initial dedication to learning the Scriptures, he held many doubts, but in 1707 Bengel gave himself to ministry, which led him to one of his greatest works, twenty years in the making, Gnomon Novi Testamenti or Gnomon of the New Testament, published in 1742. Bengel’s choosing of “gnomon” was no choice of the imagination, as it is derived from the Greek as “one who knows or examines,” or in reference to the dial of a sundial that casts its shadow. The Gnomon was simply to be used as an index to guide others in the Scriptures, rather than inputting his own words and leading by a dogmatic approach. Ten years after publishing Gnomon Novi Testamenti, Bengel died at the age of 65 on November 2, 1752.^[1]

^[1]  “Johann Albrecht Bengel.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 May 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Albrecht_Bengel.