Eichhorn

Eichhorn, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, a German Orientalist and historian, was born at Dörrenzimmern, in Franconia, 16th October 1752, and studied at Göttingen (1770-74). He was professor of Oriental Languages first at Jena (from 1775) and afterwards at Göttingen (from 1788), where he died, 27th June 1827, 'an illustrious example of academic felicity,' having discharged the duties of his professorate with distinguished success for fifty-two years. His Einleitung in das Alte Testament (3 vols. 1780-83; 4th ed. 5 vols. Göttingen, 1823-26) and in das Neue Testament (2d ed. 5 vols. 1820-27) were the first attempt to treat the books of Scripture by the ordinary methods of literary criticism on the basis of a wide knowledge of oriental antiquity. His Repertorium für biblische und morgenländische Litteratur (18 vols. Göttingen, 1777-86) and Allgemeine Bibliothek der biblischen Litteratur (10 vols. Leip. 1787-1801), like all the other works of this voluminous writer, have been superseded, and Eichhorn is chiefly remembered by his hypothesis of the origin of the Gospels (q.v.), which derived each of the synoptics independently from one original Greek gospel (Ur-Evangelium).