Zahn, THEODOR

Zahn, THEODOR, a biblical scholar of unrivalled acuteness and learning, was born at Mörs in Rhenish Prussia, October 10, 1838; studied at Basel, Erlangen, and Berlin (1854-58); became Repetent at Göttingen in 1865, privat-docent in 1868, and professor extra-ordinary of Theology in 1871; and obeyed calls to Kiel in 1877, to Erlangen in 1878, to Leipzig in 1888, and back to Erlangen in 1891. Of his writings the most important are Marcellus von Ancyra (1867), Der Hirt des Hermas (1868), Ignatius von Antiochien (1873), Acta Joannis (1880), and Cyprian von Antiochien und die Deutsche Faustsage (1882), which worthily prepared the way for those splendid comprehensive works devoted to the New Testament Canon which have placed him first amongst the scholars of his time—Forschungen zur Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons (4 vols. 1881-91), including Tatian's Diatessaron, &c.; and the Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons (vols. i.-ii. 1889-91). Together with Gebhardt and Harnack he edited the Patrum Apostolicorum Opera (3 vols. 1876-78).