ABSTRACT
Context. The immediate occasion of R L was the publication o f A Critical History of the Old Testament, a translation by Henry Dickinson of the Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament (1678) by the French Catholic priest Richard Simon (1638-1712). This pioneering work of biblical criticism studied the textual problems of the OT, discussing the corruptions which had crept into the text in the process of its transmission, and evaluating modern translations. Simon thought that this demonstration of the unreliability of the text of scripture had grave consequences for the Protestant reliance on scripture as the sole authoritative source o f Christian teaching (see 11. 276-81«). But Simon had criticized Catholic as well as Protestant authorities, and copies of the first edition of the book were seized and burnt in Paris before it was officially published. It was reprinted in 1680 in Amsterdam (three impressions). Rejoinders soon appeared: Charles Marie Du Veil (1678) pointed out the dangerous implications of Simon’s work for Protestant reliance on the Bible, and Friedrich Spanheim (1679) argued that Simon’s work was dangerous to Christianity generally. For Simon see further Jean Steinmann, Richard Simon et les origines de ľexégèse biblique (i960) and Paul Auvray, Richard Simon (1974). For the relationship of R L to Simon’s work see Phillip Harth, Contexts o f D ry den's Thought (1968), which provides a detailed and authoritative ^discussion of the poem’s contexts and arguments, and Gerard Reedy, The Bible and Reason (1985) 90-118.
