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GESENIIJS, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH WILHELM...

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 909 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GESENIIJS, HEINRICH See also:FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1786—1842) , See also:German orientalist and biblical critic, was See also:born at See also:Nordhausen, See also:Hanover, on the 3rd of See also:February 1786. In 1803 he became a student of See also:philosophy and See also:theology at the university of See also:Helmstedt, where Heinrich See also:Henke (1752—1809) was his most influential teacher; but the latter See also:part of his university course was taken at See also:Gottingen, where J.•G. See also:Eichhorn and T. C. Tychsen (1758—1834) were then at the height of their popularity. In 18o6, shortly after See also:graduation, he became Repetent and Privatdozent in that university; and, as he was fond of afterwards See also:relating, had See also:Neander for his first See also:pupil in See also:Hebrew. In 1810 he became See also:professor extraordinarius in theology, and in 1811 ordinarius, at the university of See also:Halle, where, in spite of many offers of high preferment elsewhere, he spent the See also:rest of his See also:life. He taught with See also:great regularity for upward of See also:thirty years, the only interruptions being that of 1813—1814 (occasioned by the See also:War of Liberation, during which the university was closed) and those occasioned by two prolonged See also:literary See also:tours, first in 1820 to See also:Paris, See also:London and See also:Oxford with his colleague Johann Karl Thilo (1794—1853) for the examination of rare See also:oriental See also:manuscripts, and in 1835 to See also:England and See also:Holland in connexion with his Phoenician studies. He soon became the most popular teacher of Hebrew and of Old Testament introduction and exegesis in See also:Germany; during his later years his lectures were attended by nearly five See also:hundred students. Among his pupils the most eminent were See also:Peter von Bohlen (1796—1840), A. G. See also:Hoffmann (1769—1864), See also:Hermann See also:Hupfeld, Emil Rodiger (1801—1874), J.

F. Tuch (18o6—1867), W. See also:

Vatke (1806—1882) and Theodor See also:Benfey (1809—1881). In 1827, after declining an invitation to take Eichhorn's See also:place at Gottingen, Gesenius was made a Consistorialrath; but, apart from the violent attacks to which he, along with his friend and colleague See also:Julius See also:Wegscheider, was in 183o subjected by E. W. See also:Hengstenberg and his party in the Evangelise/se Kirchenzeitung, on See also:account of his See also:rationalism, his life was uneventful. He died at Halle on the 23rd of See also:October 1842. To Gesehius belongs in a large measure the See also:credit of having freed Semitic See also:philology from the trammels of theological and religious prepossession, and of inaugurating the strictly scientific (and See also:comparative) method which has since been so fruitful. As an exegete he exercised a powerful, and on the whole a beneficial, See also:influence on theological investigation. Of his many See also:works, the earliest, published in 1810, entitled Versuch fiber See also:die maltesische Sprache, was a successful refutation of the widely current See also:opinion that the See also:modern Maltese was of Punic origin. In thesame See also:year appeared the first See also:volume of the Hebrdisches u. Chaldaisches Handworterbuch, completed in 1812.

Revised See also:

editions of this appear periodically in Germany, e.g. that of H.Limmern and F. Buhl (1905). The publication of a new See also:English edition was started in 1892 under the editorship of Professors C. A. See also:Briggs, S. R. See also:Driver and F.. See also:Brown. The Hebraische Grammatik, published in 1813 (27th edition by E. Kautzsch; English See also:translation from 25th and 26th German editions by G. W. See also:Collins and A.

E. See also:

Cowley, 1898), was followed in 1815 by the Geschichte der hebraischen Sprache (now very rare), and in 1817 by the Ausfuhrliches Lehrgebaude der hebraise/ten Sprache. The first volume of his well-known commentary on See also:Isaiah (Der See also:Prophet Jesaja), with a translation, appeared in 1821 ; but the See also:work was not completed until 1829. The See also:Thesaurus philologico-criticus linguae Hebraicae et Chaldaicae V. T., begun in 1829, he did not live to See also:complete; the latter part of the third volume is edited by E. Rodiger (1858). Other works: De Pentateuchi Samaritani origine, See also:indole, et auctoritate (1815), supplemented in 1822 and 1824 by the See also:treatise De Samaritanorum theologia, and by an edition of Carmina Samaritana; Palaographische Studien fiber phonizische u. punische Schrift (1835), a pioneering work which he followed up in 1837 by his collection of Phoenician monuments (Scripturae linguaeque Phoeniciae monumenta quotquot supersunt) ; an Aramaic See also:lexicon (1834–1839); and a treatise on the Himyaritic See also:language written in See also:conjunction with E. Rodiger in 1841. Gesenius also contributed extensively to See also:Ersch and See also:Gruber's Encyclopadie, and enriched the German translation of J. L. See also:Burckhardt's Travels in See also:Syria and the See also:Holy See also:Land with valuable See also:geographical notes. For many years he also edited the Halle Allgemeine Litteraturzeitung.

A See also:

sketch of his life was published anonymously in 1843 (Gesenius: eine Erinnerung See also:fur See also:seine Freunde), and another by H. Gesenius, Wilhelm Gesenius, ein Erinnerungsblatt an den hundertjahrigen Geburtstag, in 1886. See also the See also:article in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.

End of Article: GESENIIJS, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1786—1842)

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