Gesenius

Gesenius, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH WILHELM, one of the greatest of German orientalists and biblical scholars, was born at Nordhausen, 3d February 1786, studied at Helmstedt and Göttingen, and at Halle in 1810 became extraordinary, in 1811 ordinary, professor of Theology. Here he lectured for more than thirty years, broken only by the closing of the university during the war of liberation (1813-14), and by lengthened visits to France and England in 1820, to England and Holland in 1835. Among his pupils were Von Bohnen, Hoffmann, Hupfeld, Rödiger, Tuch, Vatke, and Benfey. He died October 23, 1842. His first great work was his Hebräisches u. Chaldaïisches Handwörterbuch (1810-12; 10th ed. revised by Mühlau and Volek, 1886; Eng. trans. by Tregelles, 1846-52). His Hebr. Elementarbuch, consisting of the Hebräische Grammatik (1813; 24th ed. by Kautzsch, 1885) and the Hebräisches Lesebuch (1814; 11th ed. by Heiligstedt, 1873), has contributed enormously to the knowledge of the Hebrew language, not only in Germany, but through translations also in England and America. Later works are his Kritische Gesch. d. Hebr. Sprache u. Schrift (1815), De Pentateuchi Samaritani Origine, Indole, et Auctoritate (1815), Grammatisch-kritisches Lehrgebäude d. Hebr. Sprache (1817), and a new translation of and commentary on Isaiah (1820-21). His greatest work is the monumental Thesaurus philologico-criticus Linguae Hebraicae et Chaldaicae Veteris Testamenti, of which the first part was published in 1829, but which was completed only in 1858 by Professor Rödiger. Many of the results of the rationalising method of interpreting the Old Testament, which characterises all the works of Gesenius, have been unable to stand the test of progressive modern biblical science. He has certainly been surpassed by Ewald in insight into the genius of the Hebrew language, and its bearing on the interpretation of Hebrew life and thought, as well as in all that qualifies the critic for a true historical, æsthetic, and religious appreciation of the literature preserved to us in the Old Testament. Yet his intense devotion to his favourite studies, and the advance which he made beyond all his predecessors in the establishment of more certain principles of Hebrew philology, undoubtedly entitle him to be regarded as having constituted a new epoch in the scientific study of the Old Testament. A fine sketch of his life was published at Berlin in 1843.