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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: EUD-FAT |
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EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON (1803-1875) , German Orientalist and theologian, was born on the 16th of November 1803 at Gottingen, where his father was a linen-weaver. In 1815 he was sent to the gymnasium, and in 1820 he entered the university of his native town, where under J. G. Eichhorn and T. C. Tychsen he devoted himself specially to the study of Oriental languages. At the close of his academical career in 1823 he was appointed to a mastership in the gymnasium at Wolfenbuttel, and made a study of the Oriental manuscripts in the Wolfenbuttel library. But in the spring of 1824 he was recalled to Gottingen as repetent, or theological tutor, and in 1827 (the year of Eichhorn's death) he became professor extraordinarius in 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 faculty of theology, taking the chair of Oriental languages.Two years later occurred the first important episode in his studious life. In 1837, on the 18th of November, along with six of his colleagues he signed a formal protest against the action of King Ernst August (duke of Cumberland) in abolishing the liberal constitution of 1833, which had been granted to the Hanoverians by his predecessor William IV. This bold procedure of the seven professors led to their speedy expulsion from the university (14th December). Early in 1838 Ewald received a call to 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 period belong some of his most important works, and also the commencement of his bitter feud
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Ewald was no common man. In his public life he displayed many noble characteristics,perfect simplicity and sincerity, intense moral earnestness, sturdy independence, absolutefearlessness. As a teacher he had a remarkable power of kindling enthusiasm; and he sent out many distinguished pupils, among whom may be mentioned Hitzig, Schrader, Noldeke, Diestel and Dillmann. His disciples were not all of one school, but many eminent scholars who apparently have been untouched by his influence have in fact developed some of the many ideas which he suggested. His numerous writings, from 1823 onwards, were the reservoirs in which the entire energy of a life was stored. His Hebrew Grammar inaugurated' a new era in biblical philology. All subsequent works in that department have been avowedly based on his, and to him will always belong the honour of having been, as Hitzig has called him, " the second founder of the science of the Hebrew language." As an exegete and biblical critic no less than as a grammarian he has left his abiding mark. His Geschichte des Volkes Israel , the result of thirty years' labour, was epoch-making in that branch of research. While in every line it bears the marks of intense individuality, it is at the same time a product highly characteristic of the age, and even of the 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 history, theology and philosophy. Taking up the idea of a divine education of the human race, which Lessing and Herder had made so familiar to the modern mind, and firmly believing that to each of the leading nations of antiquity a special task had been providentially assigned, Ewald felt no difficulty about Israel 's 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 possession of mankind. Other nations, indeed, had attempted the highest problems in religion; but Israel alone, in the providence of God, had succeeded, for Israel alone had been inspired. _ Such is the supreme meaning of that national history which began with the exodus and culminated (at the same time virtually terminating) in the appearing of Christ. The historical interval that separated these two events is treated as naturally dividing itself into three great periods, those of Moses, David and Ezra. The periods are externally indicated by the successive names by which the chosen people were calledHebrews, Israelites, Jews. The events prior to the exodus are relegated by Ewald to a preliminary chapter of primitive history; and the events of the apostolic and post-apostolic age are treated as a kind of appendix. The entire construction of the history is based, as has already been said, on a critical examination and chronological arrangement of the available documents. So far as the results of 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 work remains a storehouse of learning and is increasingly recognized as a work of rare genius.Of his works the more important are:Die Composition der Genesis kritisch untersucht (1823), an acute and able attempt to account for the use of the two names of God without recourse to the document-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 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 (18311833); Die poetischen Bucher des alten Bundes (18351837, 3rd ed., 18661867) ; Die Propheten des alten Bundes (184o1841, 2nd ed., 18671868) ; Geschichte des Volkes Israel (18431859, 3rd ed., 18641868); Alterthumer Israels (1848) ; Die drei ersten Evangelien ubersetzt u. erklart (185o) ; Uber das athiopische Buch Henoch (1854); Die. Sendschreiben des Apostels Paulus ubersetzt u. erklart (1857); Die Johanneischen Schriften ubersetzt u. erklart (18611862) ; 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, oder Theologie des alien u. neuen Bundes (18711875). The Jahrbiicher der biblischen Wissenschaft (1849-1865) were edited, and for the most part written, by him. He was the chief
Morgenlandes, begun in 1837; and he frequently contributed on various subjects to the Getting. gelehrte Anzeigen. He was also the author of many pamphlets of an occasional character. The following have been translated into English :Hebrew Gram-mar, by John Nicholson (from 2nd German edition) (London 1836); Introductory Hebrew Grammar (from 3rd German edition) (London, 187o) ; History of Israel, 5 vols. (corresponding to vols. i.-iv. of the German), by Russell Martineau and J. Estlin Carpenter (London, 18671874) ; Antiquities of Israel, by H. S. Solly (London, 1876) ; Commentary on the Prophets of the Old Testament, by J. Frederick Smith (2 vols., London, 1876-1877) ; Isaiah the Prophet, chaps. i.-xxxiii., by O. Glover (London, 1869); Life of Jesus Christ, also by O. Glover (London, 1865). See the article in Herzog-Hauck; T. Witton Davies
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