Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius (February 3, 1786–October 23, 1842), was a German orientalist and Biblical critic. February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Orientalism is the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, by Westerners. ... The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning books, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the sacred scripture of Christianity. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

He was born at Nordhausen, Thuringia. In 1803 he became a student of philosophy and theology at the University of Helmstedt, where Heinrich Henke was his most influential teacher; but the latter part of his university course was taken at the Göttingen, where J.G. Eichhorn and T.C. Tychsen were then at the height bla bla bal of their popularity. In 1806, shortly after graduation, he became Repetent and Privatdozent at Göttingen; and, as he was later proud to say, had August Neander for his first pupil in Hebrew language. 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. Roland statue in Nordhausen Twinning The city is twinned with Bet Shemesh in Israel Charleville-Mézières in France Bochum Ostrów Wielkopolski in Poland Nordhausen is a city of about 45,000 people at the southern border of the Harz mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany and is considered one of the smaller of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 km² and 2. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... University of Helmstedt in the 17th century The University of Helmstedt, official Latin name: Academia Julia (Julius University), was a university in Helmstedt, Brunswick-Lüneburg, Holy Roman Empire, that existed from 1576 until 1810. ... Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke (July 3, 1752 - May 2, 1809), German theologian, best known as a writer on church history, was born at Hehlen, Brunswick. ... The Georg-August University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (October 16, 1752 - June 27, 1827), was a German theologian. ... Thomas Christian Tychsen (1758-1834) was a German orientalist and Lutheran theologian. ... Privatdozent (PD or Priv. ... Johann August Wilhelm Neander (January 17, 1789 - July 14, 1850), was a German theologian and church historian. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... The Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg is located in the German cities of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and Wittenberg. ...

He taught for over 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 the Netherlands in connection with his Phoenician studies. He 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, A.G. Hoffmann, Hermann Hupfeld, Emil Rödiger, J.F. Tuch, Wilhelm Vatke and Theodor Benfey. A War of Liberation is a conflict which is primarily intended to bring freedom or independence to a nation or group. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 ( 2001 census). ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130... Phoenician sarcophagus found in Cadiz, Spain; now in Archaeological Museum of Cádiz. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ... Exegesis (from the Greek to lead out) involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Quran, etc. ... Peter van Bohlen (1796-1840) was a German Orientalist and Indologist, professor at Königsberg. ... Hermann Hupfeld (March 31, 1796 – April 24, 1866), German Orientalist and Biblical commentator, was born at Marburg, where he studied philosophy and theology from 1813 to 1817. ... Johann Karl Wilhelm Vatke (March 14, 1806 - April 18, 1882), German Protestant theologian, was born at Behndorf, near Magdeburg. ... Theodor Benfey (January 28, 1809 - June 26, 1881), German philologist was the son of a Jewish trader at Nörten, near Göttingen. ...

In 1827, after declining an invitation to take Eichhorn's place at Göttingen, 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. Julius August Ludwig Wegscheider (September 27, 1771 - January 27, 1849), was a German theologian. ... Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg (October 20, 1802 - May 28, 1869), was a German Lutheran churchman and theologian. ... In epistemology and in its broadest sense, rationalism is any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification (Lacey 286). ...

Gesenius takes much of the credit for having freed Semitic philology from the trammels of theological and religious prepossession, and for inaugurating the strictly scientific (and comparative) method which has since been so fruitful. As an exegete he exercised a powerful influence on theological investigation. In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical Shem, Hebrew: שם, translated as name, Arabic: سام) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. ... Philology, etymologically, is the love of words. ... Exegesis (from the Greek to lead out) involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Quran, etc. ...

Writings

Of his many works, the earliest, published in 1810, entitled Versuch über die maltesische Sprache, was a successful refutation of the current opinion that the modern Maltese was of Punic origin. In the same year appeared the first volume of the Hebräisches u. Chaldäisches Handwörterbuch, completed in 1812. Revised editions of this appear periodically in Germany. The publication of a new English edition was started in 1892 under the editorship of Professors F. Brown, S.R. Driver and C.A. Briggs, now well known as the Brown Driver Briggs lexicon. The Hebräische Grammatik, published in 1813 (28th edition by E. Kautzsch; English translation by A.E. Cowley, 1910; 29th edition [incomplete] by G. Bergsträsser, 1918-29), was followed in 1815 by the Geschichte der hebräischen Sprache (now very rare), and in 1817 by the Ausführliches Lehrgebäude der hebräischen Sprache. Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called PÅ«t in Ancient Egyptian, Canaan in Phoenician, Hebrew and Aramaic, and Phoenicia in Greek and Latin. ... Francis Brown (December 26, 1849 - ), American Semitic scholar, was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. ... Samuel Rolles Driver (October 2, 1846 - 1914), English divine and Hebrew scholar, was born at Southampton. ... Charles Augustus Briggs (January 15, 1841 - 1913), American Hebrew scholar and theologian, was born in New York City. ... The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (or BDB, ISBN 1-56563-206-0) is a standard reference for Biblical Hebrew. ... Emil Friedrich Kautzsch (1841-1910) was a German Hebrew scholar and biblical critic, born at Plausen (Saxony). ... Gotthelf Bergsträsser (1886 - 1933) was a Semitic linguist, usually considered to be one of the greatest of the twentieth century. ...

The first volume of his well-known commentary on Isaiah (Der Prophet Jesaia), 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. Rödiger (1858). Other works include: De Pentateuchi Samaritana origine, indole, et auctoritate (1815), supplemented in 1822 and 1824 by the treatise De Samaritanorum theologia, and by an edition of Carmina Samaritana; Paläographische Studien über phönizische 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. Rödiger in 1841. The Book of Isaiah (Hebrew: Sefer Yshayah ספר ישעיה) is one of the books of Judaisms Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, traditionally attributed to Isaiah. ... Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. ... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Gesenius also contributed extensively to Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie, 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 für seine Freunde), and another by H. Gesenius, Wilhelm Gesenius, am Erinnerungsblatt an den hundertjährigen Geburtstag, in 1886. Johann Ludwig (aka John Lewis) Burckhardt (November 24, 1784 - October 15, 1817), Swiss traveller and orientalist, was born in Lausanne. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.