Richard Bentley

Setting: Church of England and early Enlightenment classical scholarship.

Richard Bentley was an English classical scholar and textual emender. In response to controversy over John Mill’s variants, he argued that differences among later copies did not threaten faith because comparison could restore the ancient text. He announced an ambitious Greek and Latin New Testament edition based especially on early witnesses, though the full project never appeared.

Bentley matters less for a completed edition than for a programme: the critic could move behind the received printed text and reconstruct a much earlier form by scholarly judgment.

Bibliological positions

The ancient wording could be restored through comparison of the oldest Greek and Latin witnesses; accumulated scribal variation does not destroy recoverability but requires expert critical reconstruction.

Qualifications and disputes

Bentley defended Christianity against skeptical misuse of variants and did not complete the proposed edition. The classification concerns textual method, not a claim that he denied all biblical authority.

The intended shape of his edition and the balance between Greek, Vulgate, and conjecture must be reconstructed from proposals, correspondence, and notes.

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica — Richard Bentley — Biographical orientation
• Dictionary of National Biography — Richard Bentley — Public-domain historical biography

Principal works

• Proposals for Printing a New Edition of the Greek Testament and St. Hierom’s Latin Version (1720); legacy WRK-0104; WRK; Ready after permanent-ID allocation and duplicate scan