After some years of hesitation he resolved to be ordained, and in 1802 he passed with great distinction the examination for candidatus theologiae, and attracted the regard of Franz Volkmar Reinhard (1753–1812), author of the System der christlichen Moral (1788–1815), then court-preacher at Dresden, who became his warm friend and patron during the remainder of his life.

[1] In 1820, was published his treatise on the Gospel of John, entitled Probabilia de evangelii et epistolarum Ioannis Apostoli indole et origine cruditorum, which attracted much attention.

To the astonishment of every one, Bretschneider announced in the preface to the second edition of his Dogmatik in 1822, that he had never doubted the authenticity of the gospel, and had published his Probabilia only to draw attention to the subject, and to call forth a more complete defence of its genuineness.

[1] Bretschneider remarks in his autobiography that the publication of this work had the effect of preventing his appointment as successor to Karl Christian Tittmann (1744–1820) in Dresden, the minister Detlev von Einsiedel (1773–1861) denouncing him as the slanderer of John (Johannisschander).

[1] His dogmatic position seems to be intermediate between the extreme school of naturalists, such as Heinrich Paulus, Johann Friedrich Röhr (1777–1848) and Julius Wegscheider on the one hand, and DF Strauss and FC Baur on the other.

[1]*Autobiography, Aus meinem Leben: Selbstbiographie von K. G. Bretschneider (Gotha, 1851); translation, with notes, by George E. Day, in Bibliotheca Sacra and American Biblical Repository, Nos.