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EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON (180...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 39 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH See also:AUGUST VON (1803-1875) , See also:German Orientalist and theologian, was See also:born on the 16th of See also:November 1803 at See also:Gottingen, where his See also:father was a See also:linen-See also:weaver. In 1815 he was sent to the gymnasium, and in 1820 he entered the university of his native See also:town, where under J. G. See also:Eichhorn and T. C. Tychsen he devoted himself specially to the study of See also:Oriental See also:languages. At the See also:close of his academical career in 1823 he was appointed to a mastership in the gymnasium at See also:Wolfenbuttel, and made a study of the Oriental See also:manuscripts in the Wolfenbuttel library. But in the See also:spring of 1824 he was recalled to Gottingen as repetent, or theological See also:tutor, and in 1827 (the See also:year of Eichhorn's See also:death) he became See also:professor extraordinarius in See also:philosophy and lecturer in Old Testament exegesis. In 1831 he was promoted to the position of professor ordinarius in philosophy; in 1833 he became a member of the Royal Scientific Society, and in 1835, after Tychsen's death, he entered the See also:faculty of See also:theology, taking the See also:chair of Oriental languages. Two years later occurred the first important See also:episode in his studious See also:life. In 1837, on the 18th of November, along with six of his colleagues he signed a formal protest against the See also:action of See also:King See also:Ernst August (See also:duke of See also:Cumberland) in abolishing the liberal constitution of 1833, which had been granted to the Hanoverians by his predecessor See also:William IV. This bold See also:procedure of the seven professors led to their speedy See also:expulsion from the university (14th See also:December).

See also:

Early in 1838 Ewald received a See also:call to See also:Tubingen, and there for upwards of ten years he held a chair as professor ordinarius, first in philosophy and afterwards, from 1841, in theology. To this See also:period belong some of his most important See also:works, and also the commencement of his See also:bitter See also:feud with F. C. See also:Baur and the Tubingen school. In 1847, "the See also:great shipwreck-year in See also:Germany," as he has called it, he was invited back to Gottingen on See also:honourable terms—the liberal constitution having been restored. He gladly accepted the invitation. In 1862–1863 he took an active See also:part in a See also:movement for reform within the Hanoverian See also:Church, and he was a member of the See also:synod which passed the new constitution. He had an important See also:share also in the formation of the See also:Protestantenverein, or See also:Protestant association, in See also:September 1863. But the See also:chief crisis in his life arose out of the See also:political events of 1866. His See also:loyalty to King See also:George (son of Ernst August) would not permit him to take the See also:oath of See also:allegiance to the victorious king of See also:Prussia, and he was therefore placed on the retired See also:list, though with the full amount of his See also:salary as See also:pension. Perhaps even this degree of severity might have been held by the Prussian authorities to be unnecessary, had Ewald been less exasperating in his See also:language. The violent See also:tone of some of his printed manifestoes about this See also:time, especially of his Lob See also:des Konigs u. des Volkes, led to his being deprived of the venia legendi (1868) and also to a criminal See also:process, which, however, resulted in his acquittal (May 1869).

Then, and on two subsequent occasions, he was returned by the See also:

city of See also:Hanover as a member of the See also:North German and German parliaments. In See also:June 1874 he was found guilty of a See also:libel on See also:Prince See also:Bismarck, whom he had compared to See also:Frederick II. in " his unrighteous See also:war with See also:Austria and his ruination of See also:religion and morality," to See also:Napoleon III. in his way of " picking out the best time possible for See also:robbery and See also:plunder." For this offence he was sentenced to undergo three See also:weeks' imprisonment. He died in his 72nd year of See also:heart disease on the 4th of May 1875. Ewald was no See also:common See also:man. In his public life he displayed many See also:noble characteristics,—perfect simplicity and sincerity, intense moral earnestness, sturdy See also:independence, absolutefearlessness. As a teacher he had a remarkable See also:power of kindling See also:enthusiasm; and he sent out many distinguished pupils, among whom may be mentioned See also:Hitzig, See also:Schrader, See also:Noldeke, Diestel and See also:Dillmann. His disciples were not all of one school, but many eminent scholars who apparently have been untouched by his See also:influence have in fact See also:developed some of the many ideas which he suggested. His numerous writings, from 1823 onwards, were the reservoirs in which the entire See also:energy of a life was stored. His See also:Hebrew See also:Grammar inaugurated' a new era in biblical See also:philology. All subsequent works in that See also:department have been avowedly based on his, and to him will always belong the See also:honour of having been, as Hitzig has called him, " the second founder of the See also:science of the Hebrew language." As an exegete and biblical critic no less than as a grammarian he has See also:left his abiding See also:mark. His Geschichte des Volkes See also:Israel, the result of See also:thirty years' labour, was See also:epoch-making in that See also:branch of See also:research. While in every See also:line it bears the marks of intense individuality, it is at the same time a product highly characteristic of the See also:age, and even of the See also:decade, in which it appeared.

If it is obviously the outcome of immense learning on the part of its author, it is no less manifestly the result of the speculations and researches of many laborious predecessors in all departments of See also:

history, theology and philosophy. Taking up the See also:idea of a divine See also:education of the human See also:race, which See also:Lessing and See also:Herder had made so See also:familiar to the See also:modern mind, and firmly believing that to each of the leading nations of antiquity a See also:special task had been providentially assigned, Ewald See also:felt no difficulty about Israel's See also:place in universal history, or about the problem which that race had been called upon to solve. The history of Israel, according to him, is simply the history of the manner in which the one true religion really and truly came into the See also:possession of mankind. Other nations, indeed, had attempted the highest problems in religion; but Israel alone, in the See also:providence of See also:God, had succeeded, for Israel alone had been inspired. _ Such is the supreme meaning of that See also:national history which began with the See also:exodus and culminated (at the same time virtually terminating) in the appearing of See also:Christ. The See also:historical See also:interval that separated these two events is treated as naturally dividing itself into three great periods, —those of See also:Moses, See also:David and See also:Ezra. The periods are externally indicated by the successive names by which the chosen See also:people were called—Hebrews, Israelites, See also:Jews. The events See also:prior to the exodus are relegated by Ewald to a preliminary See also:chapter of See also:primitive history; and the events of the apostolic and See also:post-apostolic age are treated as a See also:kind of appendix. The entire construction of the history is based, as has already been said, on a See also:critical examination and See also:chronological arrangement of the available documents. So far as the results of See also:criticism are still uncertain with regard to the age and authorship of any of these, Ewald's conclusions must of course be regarded as unsatisfactory. But his See also:work remains a storehouse of learning and is increasingly recognized as a work of rare See also:genius. Of his works the more important are:—Die See also:Composition der See also:Genesis kritisch untersucht (1823), an acute and able See also:attempt to See also:account for the use of the two names of God without recourse to the document-See also:hypothesis; he was not himself, however, permanently convinced by it; De metris carminum Arabicorum (1825); Das Hohelied Salomo's i bersetzl u. erklart (1826; 3rd ed., 1866) ; Kritische Grammatik der hebr.

Sprache (1827)—this afterwards became the Ausfuhrliches Lehrbuch der hebr. Sprache (8th ed., 187o) ; and it was followed by the Hebr. Sprachlehre See also:

fur Anfanger (4th ed., 1874) ; Uber einige dltere Sanskritmetra (1827); Libel Vakedii de Mesopotamiae expugnatae historia (1827); Commentarius in Apocalypsin Johannis (1828); Abhandlungen zur biblischen u. orientalischen Literatur (1832); Grammatica critica linguae Arabicae (1831–1833); See also:Die poetischen See also:Bucher des See also:alten Bundes (1835–1837, 3rd ed., 1866–1867) ; Die Propheten des alten Bundes (184o–1841, 2nd ed., 1867–1868) ; Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1843–1859, 3rd ed., 1864–1868); Alterthumer Israels (1848) ; Die drei ersten Evangelien ubersetzt u. erklart (185o) ; Uber das athiopische See also:Buch Henoch (1854); Die. Sendschreiben des Apostels See also:Paulus ubersetzt u. erklart (1857); Die Johanneischen Schriften ubersetzt u. erklart (1861–1862) ; Uber des vierte Esrabuch (1863) ; Sieben Sendschreiben des neuen Bundes (187o) ; Das Sendschreiben an die Hebrder u. Jakobos' Rundschreiben (187o); Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, See also:oder Theologie des See also:alien u. neuen Bundes (1871–1875). The Jahrbiicher der biblischen Wissenschaft (1849-1865) were edited, and for the most part written, by him. He was the chief See also:promoter of the Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, begun in 1837; and he frequently contributed on various subjects to the Getting. gelehrte Anzeigen. He was also the author of many See also:pamphlets of an occasional See also:character. The following have been translated into See also:English :Hebrew See also:Gram-See also:mar, by See also:John See also:Nicholson (from 2nd German edition) (See also:London 1836); See also:Introductory Hebrew Grammar (from 3rd German edition) (London, 187o) ; History of Israel, 5 vols. (corresponding to vols. i.-iv. of the German), by See also:Russell See also:Martineau and J. Estlin See also:Carpenter (London, 1867–1874) ; Antiquities of Israel, by H. S.

Solly (London, 1876) ; Commentary on the Prophets of the Old Testament, by J. Frederick See also:

Smith (2 vols., London, 1876-1877) ; See also:Isaiah the See also:Prophet, chaps. i.-xxxiii., by O. See also:Glover (London, 1869); Life of Jesus Christ, also by O. Glover (London, 1865). See the See also:article in See also:Herzog-Hauck; T. Witton See also:Davies, Heinrich Ewald (1903); and cf. T. K. See also:Cheyne, Founders of Old Testament Criticism (1893); F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth See also:Century (1889).

End of Article: EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON (1803-1875)

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