Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen | |
---|---|
Halle and Marburg | |
Title | Doctor |
Julius Wellhausen (17 May 1844 – 7 January 1918) was a German
Biography
Wellhausen was born at
I became a theologian because the scientific treatment of the Bible interested me; only gradually did I come to understand that a professor of theology also has the practical task of preparing the students for service in the Protestant Church, and that I am not adequate to this practical task, but that instead despite all caution on my own part I make my hearers unfit for their office. Since then my theological professorship has been weighing heavily on my conscience.[5][6]
He became
Among theologians and biblical scholars, he is best known for his book, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (Prolegomena to the History of Israel); his work in Arabic studies (specifically, the magisterial work entitled The Arab Kingdom and its Fall) remains celebrated, as well.[7] After a detailed synthesis of existing views on the origins of the first five books of the Bible, Wellhausen aimed at placing the development of these books into a historical and social context.[8][9] The resulting argument, called the documentary hypothesis, became the dominant model for many biblical scholars and remained so for most of the 20th century.
According to Alan Levenson, Wellhausen considered theological anti-Judaism, as well as antisemitism, to be normative.[10]
Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels and documentary hypothesis
Wellhausen was famous for his critical investigations into Old Testament history and the composition of the Hexateuch. He is perhaps best known for his Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (1883, first published in 1878 as Geschichte Israels) in which he advanced a definitive formulation of the documentary hypothesis. It argues that the Torah had its origins in a redaction of four originally-independent texts dating from several centuries after the time of Moses, their traditional author.
Wellhausen's hypothesis remained the dominant model for Pentateuchal studies until the last quarter of the 20th century, when it began to be advanced by other
Regarding his sources, Wellhausen described
Other works
A select list of his works are as follows:
- De gentibus et familiis Judaeis (Göttingen, 1870)
- Der Text der Bücher Samuelis untersucht (Göttingen, 1871)
- Die Phariseer und Sadducäer, a classic treatise upon this subject (Greifswald, 1874)
- )
- Muhammed in Medina, a translation of Al-Waqidi (Berlin, 1882)
- Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bücher des Alten Testaments (1876/77, 3rd ed. 1899)
- Israelitische und jüdische Geschichte (1894, 4th ed. 1901)
- Reste arabischen Heidentums (1897)
- Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, in its time the standard modern account of Umayyad history (1902), English translation The Arab Kingdom and its Fall (1927)[11]
- Urdu Translation: "Saltanat e Arab Aur Uska Suqoot".[12]
- Skizzen und Vorarbeiten (1884–1899)
- Medina vor dem Islam (1889)
- New and revised editions of Friedrich Bleek's Einleitung in das Alte Testament (4–6, 1878–1893).
- Die kleinen Propheten, a critical brochure (1902)
- “The Book of Psalms” in Sacred Books of the Old Testament (Leipzig, 1895; Eng. trans., 1898)
In 1906 Die christliche Religion, mit Einschluss der israelitisch-jüdischen Religion appeared, in collaboration with
References
- ^ Cardozo, Nathan Lopes. "On Bible Criticism and Its Counterarguments". Torat Emet.
- ^ "Did Moses Write the Pentateuch?".
- ^ Friedman, Richard Elliott (1986). Who Wrote the Bible?. Harper Collins. p. 26.
- ^ Clements, R.E. A Century of Old Testament Study (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1994), 7.
- ^ Levenson, Alan. "Was the Documentary Hypothesis Tainted by Wellhausen's Antisemitism? - TheTorah.com". www.thetorah.com. Project TABS. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ Cited in Robert J. Oden Jr.,The Bible Without Theology: the Theological Tradition and Alternatives to It (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2000), p. 20.
- ISBN 978-1-315-41033-3. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ Wellhausen, Julius (1874). Die Pharisäer und die Sadducäer: eine Untersuchung zur inneren jüdischen Geschichte (1 ed.). Greifswald: L. Bamberg. p. 19.
- ISBN 978-1-55540-938-8.
- ^ Levenson, Alan. "Was the Documentary Hypothesis Tainted by Wellhausen's Antisemitism? - TheTorah.com". TheTorah.com. Project TABS. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-415-24072-7
- ^ "The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall Urdu, Julius Wellhausen, سلطنت عرب کا سقوط".
Additional sources
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wellhausen, Julius". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Steven Cassedy, "Walter Rauschenbusch, the Social Gospel Movement, and How Julius Wellhausen Unwittingly Helped Create American Progressivism in the Twentieth Century," in Shawna Dolansky (ed.), Sacred History, Sacred Literature: Essays on Ancient Israel, the Bible, and Religion in Honor of R. E. Friedman on His Sixtieth Birthday. Winnona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2008; pp. 315–324.
- Paul Michael Kurtz, Kaiser, Christ, and Canaan: The Religion of Israel in Protestant Germany, 1871–1918. Forschungen zum Alten Testament I/122. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018.