GESENIUS

gesenius, heinrich friedrich wilhelm (1786-1842), german orientalist and biblical critic, was born at nordhausen, hanover, on the 3rd of february 1786. in 1803 he became a student of philosophy and theology at the university of helmstadt, where heinrich henke (1752-1809) was his most influential teacher; but the latter part of his university course was taken at gottingen, where j. g. eichhorn and t. c. tychsen (1758-1834) were then at the height of their popularity. in 1806, shortly after graduation, he became _repetent_ and _privatdozent_ in that university; and, as he was fond of afterwards relating, had neander for his first pupil in hebrew. in 1810 he became professor extraordinarius in theology, and in 1811 ordinarius, at the university of halle, where, in spite of many offers of high preferment elsewhere, he spent the rest of his life. he taught with great regularity for upward of thirty years, the only interruptions being that of 1813-1814 (occasioned by the war of liberation, during which the university was closed) and those occasioned by two prolonged literary tours, first in 1820 to paris, london and oxford with his colleague johann karl thilo (1794-1853) for the examination of rare oriental manuscripts, and in 1835 to england and holland in connexion with his phoenician studies. he soon became the most popular teacher of hebrew and of old testament introduction and exegesis in germany; during his later years his lectures were attended by nearly five hundred students. among his pupils the most eminent were peter von bohlen (1796-1840), a. g. hoffmann (1769-1864), hermann hupfeld, emil rodiger (1801-1874), j. f. tuch (1806-1867), w. vatke (1806-1882) and theodor benfey (1809-1881). in 1827, after declining an invitation to take eichhorn's place at gottingen, gesenius was made a _consistorialrath_; but, apart from the violent attacks to which he, along with his friend and colleague julius wegscheider, was in 1830 subjected by e. w. hengstenberg and his party in the _evangelische kirchenzeitung_, on account of his rationalism, his life was uneventful. he died at halle on the 23rd of october 1842. to gesenius belongs in a large measure the credit of having freed semitic philology from the trammels of theological and religious prepossession, and of inaugurating the strictly scientific (and comparative) method which has since been so fruitful. as an exegete he exercised a powerful, and on the whole a beneficial, influence on theological investigation. of his many works, the earliest, published in 1810, entitled _versuch uber die maltesische sprache_, was a successful refutation of the widely current opinion that the modern maltese was of punic origin. in the same year appeared the first volume of the _hebraisches u. chaldaisches handworterbuch_, completed in 1812. revised editions of this appear periodically in germany, e.g. that of h. zimmern and f. buhl (1905). the publication of a new english edition was started in 1892 under the editorship of professors c. a. briggs, s. r. driver and f. brown. _the hebraische grammatik_, published in 1813 (27th edition by e. kautzsch; english translation from 25th and 26th german editions by g. w. collins and a. e. cowley, 1898), was followed in 1815 by the _geschichte der hebraischen sprache_ (now very rare), and in 1817 by the _ausfuhrliches lehrgebaude der hebraischen sprache_. the first volume of his well-known commentary on isaiah (_der prophet jesaja_), with a translation, appeared in 1821; but the work was not completed until 1829. the _thesaurus philologico-criticus linguae hebraicae et chaldaicae v. t._, begun in 1829, he did not live to complete; the latter part of the third volume is edited by e. rodiger (1858). other works: _de pentateuchi samaritani origine, indole, et auctoritate_ (1815), supplemented in 1822 and 1824 by the treatise _de samaritanorum theologia_, and by an edition of _carmina samaritana_; _palaographische studien uber 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 lexicon (1834-1839); and a treatise on the himyaritic language written in conjunction with e. rodiger in 1841. gesenius also contributed extensively to ersch and gruber's _encyclopadie_, and enriched the german translation of j. l. burckhardt's _travels in syria and the holy land_ with valuable geographical notes. for many years he also edited the halle _allgemeine litteraturzeitung_. a sketch of his life was published anonymously in 1843 (_gesenius: eine erinnerung fur seine freunde_), and another by h. _gesenius, wilhelm gesenius, ein erinnerungsblatt an den hundertjahrigen geburtstag_, in 1886. see also the article in the _allgemeine deutsche biographie_.