Editing Wilhelm Gesenius (section)

== Biography ==
Gesenius was born at [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]]. In 1803 he became a student of [[philosophy]] and [[Christian theology|theology]] at the [[University of Helmstedt]], where [[Heinrich Philipp Konrad Henke|Heinrich Henke]] was his most influential teacher; but the latter part of his university course was taken at [[University of Göttingen|Göttingen]], where [[Johann Gottfried Eichhorn]] and [[Thomas Christian Tychsen]] were then at the height of their popularity. In 1806, shortly after graduation, he became ''Repetent'' and ''[[Privatdozent]]'' (or ''Magister legens'') at Göttingen; and, as he was later proud to say, had [[August Neander]] for his first pupil in [[Hebrew language]]. On 8 February 1810 he became ''professor extraordinarius'' in theology, and on 16 June 1811 was promoted to ''ordinarius'', at the [[University of Halle]], where, in spite of many offers of high preferment elsewhere, he spent the rest of his life.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name="gen-lex">{{Cite book | first=Edward Frederick | last=Miller | title=The Influence of Gesenius on Hebrew Lexicography | series=Contributions to Oriental History and Philosophy | issue=11 | pages=11–13 | year=1927 | publisher=Columbia University Press | location=New York | isbn=9780231894623}}</ref><ref name="bibliosacra">{{Cite book | first=Edward | last=Robinson | author-link=Edward Robinson (scholar) | title=Bibliotheca Sacra or Tracts and Essays | chapter=Biographical Notices of Gesenius and Nordheimer | pages=361–362 | year=1843 | publisher=Wiley and Putnam | location=New York | isbn=978-1436788816}}</ref>

He taught with great regularity for over thirty years. He was a gifted lecturer whose lectures were so interesting that his lecture room was consistently filled; by 1810 his lectures were attended by more than 500 students – nearly half the student population of the university.{{r|gen-lex|pp1=14-15|bibliosacra|p2=367}} The only interruptions occurred in 1813–1814, occasioned by the German War of Liberation ([[War of the Sixth Coalition]]), during which the university was closed, and those occasioned by two prolonged literary tours, first in 1820 to [[Paris, France|Paris]], [[London]] and [[Oxford, England|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 [[Phoenicia]]n 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]], [[Carl Peter Wilhelm Gramberg|C. P. W. Gramberg]], [[Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann|A. G. Hoffmann]], [[Hermann Hupfeld]], [[Emil Rödiger]], [[Johann Christian Friedrich Tuch|J. C. F. Tuch]], [[Johann Karl Wilhelm Vatke|J. K. W. Vatke]] and [[Theodor Benfey]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His first Hebrew [[lexicon]] (with German text) was worked up during the winter of 1806–1807, and published a few years later by F. C. W. Vogel, whose printing house in [[Leipzig]] thereafter published all the editions of his lexicons. This was followed by a somewhat abridged version (about half the bulk of the first lexicon but with significant improvements) in 1815, which went to four German editions (each substantially larger and improved than its previous editions) and one Latin edition (although intended merely as a translation of the German edition, this too was a reworked revisions).{{r|gen-lex|pp=16, 35-45}} His large lexicon of Biblical Hebrew and Chaldee (Aramaic) was first published in 1829, and its revision and expansion, under the editorship of  Rödiger, continued after Gesenius's death until 1858. His textbook on Hebrew grammar first appeared, as a small book of a mere 202 pages, in 1813, and went through 13 editions in Gesenius's lifetime and as many afterward.{{r|gen-lex|p1=16|bibliosacra|p2=371}} He also published some smaller works, in German, on the grammatical anomalies found in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament.{{r|gen-lex|p=17}} He also wrote extensively on the Samaritans and their version of the Pentateuch,{{r|gen-lex|p=18}} and on the Phoenicians and their language, most notably with the publication of ''[[Scripturae Linguaeque Phoeniciae]]''.{{r|bibliosacra|p=370}}

In 1827, after declining an invitation to take Eichhorn's place at Göttingen, Gesenius was made a {{lang|de|Consistorialrat}}. In 1830 there were violent verbal attacks to which he, along with his friend and colleague [[Julius August Ludwig Wegscheider|Julius Wegscheider]], were subjected by [[Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg|E. W. Hengstenberg]] and his party in the ''Evangelische Kirchenzeitung'', on account of his [[rationalism]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and his lecture comments treating lightly the Biblical accounts of miracles.{{r|gen-lex|p=19}} He was thereafter troubled with personal stresses; in 1833 he nearly died of lung disease, in 1835 three of his children died, and subsequently he was tormented by various physical complaints. His death in 1842 came after prolonged misery from gall stones.{{r|gen-lex|pp1=19-21|bibliosacra|pp2=369, 376}} There is however some discrepancy as to how many of Gesenius's children died before their father.<ref>Robinson said that three of his children died in 1835, Miller says "several" children. See Robinson, ''Biographical Notices'' and Miller, ''Influence of Gesenius''.</ref>

Gesenius died at [[Halle an der Saale|Halle]] and is buried near the university. According to tradition, theology students in Halle put stones on his grave as a token of respect every year before their examinations.<ref>{{cite news |author=Yaacov Shavit |date=16 April 2010 |script-title=he:וגם גזניוס ברוך יהיה |language=he |trans-title=And also Gesenius shall be blessed |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/literature/1.1197789 |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |access-date=31 August 2014}}</ref>

Gesenius takes much of the credit for having freed [[Semitic languages|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 [[Exegesis|exegete]] he exercised a powerful influence on theological investigation.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He may also be considered as a founder of [[Phoenicia]]n studies.<ref>"Wilhelm Gesenius", in ''Je m'appelle Byblos'', [[Jean-Pierre Thiollet]], H & D, 2005, p. 253.</ref> Gesenius was keenly aware of previous efforts at dictionaries of Biblical Hebrew (he provided an extensive survey of Hebrew lexicography in the 1823 edition of his Hebrew lexicon for schools<ref>An English translation of this essay, "On the Sources of Hebrew Philology and Lexicography", appears in ''The Biblical Repository'', ed. by Edward Robinson, vol. 3, nr. 9 (Jan. 1833) pages 1–44.</ref>), and, compared to previous lexicons which had simply translated Hebrew expressions as whatever other versions (primarily the [[Septuagint]] and the [[Vulgate]]) had in the same verses, his own contribution to that field was the inclusion of insights obtained from the study of other languages, ancient and non-semitic.{{r|bibliosacra|p=369}} From his extensive body of work, the products most familiar to modern English-speaking readers are his Hebrew Grammar, best represented by an English translation of the 28th German edition, published by [[Oxford University Press]] in 1910,<ref>''Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar'' as edited and enlarged by [[Emil Friedrich Kautzsch|E. Kautzsch]], second English edition, translated and revised in accordance with the 28th German edition (1909) by [[Arthur Cowley (librarian)|A. E. Cowley]] (1910, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 598 pages).</ref> and his dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, known through a number of English translations, including the ''Gesenius's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures'', a 1853 edition revised by [[Samuel Prideaux Tregelles]]<ref>{{Cite book | editor-first=Samuel Prideaux | editor-last=Tregelles | editor-link=Samuel Prideaux Tregelles | title=Gesenius's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, Translated, with Additions and Corrections from the Author's Thesaurus and Other Works | year=1853  | publisher=Samuel Bagster and sons | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/hebrewchaldeelex00geseuoft}}</ref> and the ''[[Brown–Driver–Briggs]]'', a 1907 edition revised by [[Francis Brown (theologian)|Francis Brown]], [[Samuel Rolles Driver]] and [[Charles Augustus Briggs|Charles A. Briggs]].<ref>{{Cite book | editor1-first=Francis | editor1-last=Brown | editor2-first=S. R. | editor2-last=Driver | editor3-first=Charles A. | editor3-last=Briggs | others=Edward Robinson (trans.) | title=A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament with an Appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic, Based on the Lexicon of William Gesenius  | year=1907 | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company | location=New York; Boston | url=https://archive.org/details/hebrewenglishlex00geseuoft}} This work has been updated and reprinted by several other publishers.</ref> As indicated by the title pages, the German editions of these works were carried forward by several revised editions, after Gesenius's death, by other scholars, most conspicuously [[Emil Rödiger]]. The newest edition is the 18th which was published in 2013.

[[Edward Robinson (scholar)|Edward Robinson]], an acquaintance of Gesenius, and his principal English translator and biographer, said of him,<blockquote>So clear were his own conception, that he never uttered a sentence, no scarcely ever wrote one, which even the dullest intellect did not at once comprehend. In this respect, he may be said to stand out almost alone among modern German scholars. ... In all that fell within the proper sphere of his own researches, he never rested upon the authority of others, but investigated for himself, with all the minute accuracy and closeness of detail and unwearied industry for which German learning is celebrated. His one great object was philological truth. He had no preconceived theories, to the support of which he was at all hazards committed, and in connection with which only he sought for truth. These traits, combined with his extensive learning, inspired a confidence in his researches and opinions on topics connected with Hebrew philology, such as has been bestowed on few scholars.{{r|bibliosacra|p=372}}</blockquote>