Julius Wellhausen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Julius Wellhausen |
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| Born | 17 May 1844 in Hamelin, Hanover, Germany |
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| Died | 7 January 1918 (aged 73) in Göttingen, Hanover, Germany |
| Church | Lutheran |
| Education | Göttingen |
| Offices held | Professor of Old Testament at Göttingen, Greifswald, Halle and Marburg |
| Title | Doctor |
Julius Wellhausen (born May 17, 1844 – died January 7, 1918) was an important German scholar. He studied the Bible and the history of the Middle East.
Wellhausen started his career by researching the Old Testament. Later, he also studied Islamic studies and the New Testament. He is famous for his ideas about how the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, were written. He also looked closely at the early history of Islam.
One of his biggest contributions was helping to create the "documentary hypothesis." This idea explains how different parts of the Torah might have been put together over time.
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A Scholar's Life and Work
Julius Wellhausen was born in Hamelin, a town in what was then the Kingdom of Hanover. His father was a Protestant pastor. Julius studied theology at the University of Göttingen. There, he learned from a famous scholar named Georg Heinrich August Ewald.
In 1870, Wellhausen became a private lecturer in Old Testament history at Göttingen. This meant he could teach at the university. In 1872, he became a full professor of theology at the University of Greifswald.
However, in 1882, he decided to leave his job as a theology professor. He felt that his scientific way of studying the Bible did not fit with preparing students to be pastors. He wrote that he felt he was making his students "unfit for their office."
After leaving theology, Wellhausen became a professor of oriental languages. He taught at the University of Halle. Later, he moved to the University of Marburg in 1885. Finally, in 1892, he returned to Göttingen, where he taught until he passed away.
Understanding the Bible: The Documentary Hypothesis
Wellhausen is most famous for his book, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels. This book, first published in 1878, looked deeply into the history of the Old Testament.
His main idea, known as the documentary hypothesis, changed how many scholars understood the Torah. The Torah includes the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. People traditionally believed Moses wrote these books.
Wellhausen's hypothesis suggested that these books were not written by one person. Instead, he argued they were put together from four different older texts. These texts were written over several centuries after Moses' time. He showed how these different sources were combined to form the Torah we know today.
For a long time, Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis was the main way scholars studied the Pentateuch. While new ideas have come up, his work remains very important in biblical studies.
Other Important Studies
Besides his work on the Bible, Wellhausen also made big contributions to Islamic studies. His book Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz (which means The Arab Kingdom and its Fall) became a key book for understanding the history of the Umayyad dynasty. This was an important early period in Islamic history.
He also wrote about the Pharisees and Sadducees, two important groups in ancient Jewish society. Later in his career, he wrote commentaries on the New Testament Gospels, including Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
Wellhausen's work helped shape how scholars study both the Bible and the history of the Middle East.
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Julius Wellhausen
See also
In Spanish: Julius Wellhausen para niños
