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BLEEK, FRIEDRICH (1793-1859)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 56 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BLEEK, See also:FRIEDRICH (1793-1859) , See also:German Biblical See also:scholar, was See also:born on the 4th of See also:July 1793, at Ahrensbok, in See also:Holstein, a See also:village near See also:Lubeck. His See also:father sent him in his sixteenth See also:year to the gymnasium at Lubeck, where he became so much interested in See also:ancient See also:languages that he abandoned his See also:idea of a legal career and resolved to devote himself to the study of See also:theology. After spending some See also:time at the university of See also:Kiel, he went to See also:Berlin, where, from 1814 to 1817, he studied under De Wette, See also:Neander and See also:Schleiermacher. So highly were his merits appreciated by his professors—Schleiermacher was accustomed to say that he possessed a See also:special charisma for the See also:science of " Introduction "—that in 1818 after he had passed the See also:examinations for entering the See also:ministry he was recalled to Berlin as Repetent or tutorial See also:fellow in theology, a temporary_ See also:post which the theological See also:faculty had obtained for him. Besides discharging his duties in the theological See also:seminary, he published two See also:dissertations in Schleiermacher's and G. C. F. Lucke's See also:Journal(1819-1820,1822), one on the origin and See also:composition of the Sibylline Oracles " tjber See also:die Entstehung and Zusammensetzung der Sibyllinischen Orakel," and another on the authorship and See also:design of the See also:Book of See also:Daniel, " tjber Verfasser and Zweck See also:des Buches Daniel." These articles attracted much See also:attention, and were distinguished by those qualities of solid learning, thorough investigation and candour of See also:judgment which characterized all his writings. Bleek's merits as a rising scholar were recognized by the See also:minister of public instruction, who continued his See also:stipend as Repetent for a third year, and promised further See also:advancement in due time. But the attitude of the See also:political authority underwent a See also:change. De Wette was dismissed from his professorship in 1819, and Bleek, a favourite See also:pupil, incurred the suspicion of the See also:government as an extreme ' democrat. Not only was his stipend as Repetent discontinued, but his nomination to the See also:office of See also:professor extraordinarius, which had already been signed by the minister Karl See also:Altenstein, was withheld.

At length it was found that Bleek had been See also:

con-founded with a certain Baueleven Blech, and in 1823 he received the See also:appointment. During the six years that Bleek remained at Berlin, he twice declined a See also:call to the office of professor ordinarius of theology, once to Greifswald and once to See also:Konigsberg. In 1829, however, he was induced to accept Lticke's See also:chair in the recently-founded university of See also:Bonn, and entered upon his duties there in the summer of the same year. For See also:thirty years he laboured with ever-increasing success, due not to any attractions of manner or to the enunciation of novel or bizarre opinions, but to the soundness of his investigations, the impartiality of his judgments, and the clearness of his method. In 1843 he was raised to the office of consistorial councillor, and was selected by the university to hold the office of See also:rector, a distinction which has not since been conferred upon any theologian of the Reformed See also:Church. He died suddenly of See also:apoplexy on the 27th of See also:February 1859. Bleek's See also:works belong entirely to the departments of Biblical See also:criticism and exegesis. His views on questions of Old Testament criticism were " advanced " in his own See also:day; for on all the disputed points concerning the unity and authorship of the books of the Old See also:Covenant he was opposed to received See also:opinion. But with respect to the New Testament his position was conservative. An opponent of the See also:Tubingen school, his See also:defence of the genuineness and authenticity of the See also:gospel of St See also:John is among the ablest that have been written; and although on some See also:minor points his views did not altogether coincide with those of the traditional school, his See also:critical labours on the New Testament must nevertheless be regarded as among the most important contributions to the See also:maintenance of orthodox opinions. His greatest See also:work, his commentary on the See also:epistle to the See also:Hebrews (Brief an die Hebraer erlautert durch Einleitung, Ubersetzung, and fortlaufenden Commentar, in three parts, 1828, 1836 and 184o) won the highest praise from men like De Wette and Fr. See also:Delitzsch.

This work was abridged by Bleek for his See also:

college lectures, and was published in that condensed See also:form in1868. In 1846 he published his contributions to the criticism, of the gospels (Beitrage zur Evangelien Kritik, pt. i.), which contained his defence of St John's. gospel, and arose out of a See also:review of J. H. A. See also:Ebrard's Wissenschaftliche Kritik der Evangelischen Geschichte (1842). After his See also:death were published:—(1) His Introduction to the Old Testament (Einleitung in das Alte Testament), (3rd ed., 1869) ; Eng. trans. by G. H. Venables (from 2nd ed., 1869) in 1878 a new edition (the 4th) appeared under the editorship of J. See also:Wellhausen, who made extensive alterations and additions; (2) his Introduction to the New Testament (3rd ed., W. Mangold, 1875), Eng. trans. (from 2nd German ed.) by See also:William Urwick (1869, 1870) ; (3) his Exposition of the First Three Gospels (Synoptische Erklarung der drei ersten Evangelien), by H. See also:Holtzmann (1862) ; (4) his Lectures on the See also:Apocalypse (Vorlesungen fiber die Apokalypsee), (Eng. trans.

1875). Besides these there has also appeared a small See also:

volume containing Lectures on See also:Colossians, See also:Philemon and See also:Ephesians (Berlin, 1865). Bleek also contributed many articles to the Studien and Kritiken. For further See also:information as to Bleek's See also:life and writings, see Kamphausen's See also:article in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie; See also:Frederic Lichtenberger's Histoire des idees religieuses en .4llemagne, vol. iii.; Diestel's Geschichte des See also:Alten Testamentes (1869) ; and T. K. See also:Cheyne's Founders of Old Testament Criticism (1893).

End of Article: BLEEK, FRIEDRICH (1793-1859)

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