Wellhausen, JULIUS, a learned Old Testament scholar, was born at Hameln, 17th May 1844, studied at Göttingen under Ewald, became privat-docent there in 1870, and ordinary professor of Theology at Greifswald in 1872. He resigned in 1882 from conscientious reasons, first became professor extra-ordinary in Philology at Halle, and in 1885 ordinary professor of Oriental Languages at Marburg. He has made his name widely known by his equally able and uncompromising application of the views of Graf and Kuenen to the fundamental problems of Old Testament history.
His books are Der Text der Bücher Samuelis (1872), Die Pharisäer und die Sadduzäer (1874), Geschichte Israels (vol. i. 1878, rewritten as Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, 1883; Eng. trans. 1885), Skizzen und Vorarbeiten (5 parts, 1884-89), Muhammed in Medina (1882), and Die Komposition des Hexateuchs (1889). Wellhausen also edited the 4th and 5th editions of Bleek's Einleitung in das Alte Testament (1878, 1886).