Editing Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

{{short description|German Lutheran churchman and neo-Lutheran theologian (1802-1869)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{more footnotes|date=February 2012}}
[[Image:Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm bw.jpg|thumb|Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg.]]
'''Ernst Wilhelm Theodor Herrmann Hengstenberg''' (20 October 1802 in [[Fröndenberg]] – 28 May 1869 in Berlin), was a German [[Lutheran]] churchman and [[neo-Lutheran]] [[theology|theologian]] from an old and important [[Dortmund]] family.

He was born at Fröndenberg, a [[Westphalia]]n town, and was educated by his father Johann Heinrich Karl Hengstenberg, who was a famous minister of the [[Reformed Church]] and head of the [[Fröndenberg]] [[convent]] of canonesses ([[Fräuleinstift]]). His mother was Wilhelmine then Bergh. Entering the [[University of Bonn]] in 1819, Hengstenberg attended the lectures of [[Georg Wilhelm Freytag]] for Oriental languages and of [[Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler]] for church history, but his energies were principally devoted to [[philosophy]] and [[philology]], and his earliest publication was an edition of the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] ''[[Mu'allaqat]]'' of [[Imru' al-Qais]], which gained for him a prize at his graduation in the philosophical faculty. This was followed in 1824 by a German translation of [[Aristotle]]'s ''Metaphysics''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Finding himself without the means to complete his theological studies under [[Johann August Wilhelm Neander]] and [[Friedrich August Tholuck]] in Berlin, he accepted a post at [[Basel]] as tutor in Oriental languages to [[Johann Jakob Stähelin]] (1797–1875), later a professor at the university. It was there that he began to direct his attention to a study of the Bible, which led him to a conviction, not only of the divine character of evangelical religion, but also of the unapproachable adequacy of its expression in the [[Augsburg Confession]]. In 1824 he joined the philosophical faculty of the [[University of Berlin]] as a ''[[privatdozent]]'', and in 1825 he became a licentiate in theology, his theses being remarkable for their evangelical fervour and for their emphatic protest against every form of "[[rationalism]]", especially in questions of [[Old Testament]] criticism.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1826 he became professor extraordinarius in theology; and in July 1827 took on the  editorship of the ''Evangelische Kirchenzeitung'', a strictly orthodox journal, which in his hands acquired an almost unique reputation as a controversial organ. It did not become well known until in 1830 an anonymous article (by [[Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach]]) appeared, which openly charged [[Wilhelm Gesenius]] and [[Julius Wegscheider]] with infidelity and profanity, and on the ground of these accusations advocated the interposition of the civil power, thus giving rise to the prolonged ''Hallischer Streit''. In 1828 the first volume of Hengstenberg's ''Christologie des Alten Testaments'' passed through the press; in the autumn of that year he became professor ordinarius in theology, and in 1829 doctor of theology.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Main works==
[[Image:Radensleben Hengstenberg Tafel.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque with dates of the family Hengstenberg in Neuruppin-Radensleben, Brandenburg, Germany.]]
*''Christologie des Alten Testaments'' (1829–1835; 2nd ed., 1854–1857; Eng. trans. by R Keith, 1835–1839, also in Clark's ''Foreign Theological Library'', by T Meyer and J Martin, 1854–1858), a work of much learning the estimate of which varies according to the hermeneutical principle of the individual critic.
**English translation in ([https://books.google.com/books?id=v1FGAAAAYAAJ Google Books])
*''Beiträge zur Einleitung in das Alte Testament'' (1831–1839); Eng. trans., ''Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel'', and the ''Integrity of Zechariah'' (Edin., 1848), and ''Dissertation on the Genuineness of the Pentateuch'' (Edin., 1847), in which the traditional view on each question is strongly upheld, and much capital is made of the absence of harmony among the negative.
**English translation in ([https://books.google.com/books?id=mBIPAQAAIAAJ Google Books] for Vol. 1) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=ylUpAAAAYAAJ Google Books] for Vol. 2)
**English translation in ([https://archive.org/details/egyptandbooksmo02henggoog Internet Archive])
*''Die Bücher Moses und Aegypten'' (1841).
**English translation in ([https://archive.org/details/egyptandbooksmo02henggoog Internet Archive])
*''Die Geschichte Bileams u. seiner Weissagungen'' (1842; translated along with the ''Dissertations on Daniel and Zechariah'').
*''Commentar über die Psalmen'' (1842–1847; 2nd ed., 1849–1852; Eng. trans. by P Fairbain and J Thomson, Edin., 1844–1848), which shares the merit and defects of the ''Christologie''.
**English translation in ([https://archive.org/details/psalmstranslate00alexgoog Internet Archive] for Vol. 1) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=jlstAAAAYAAJ Internet Archive] for Vol. 2) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=oFYtAAAAYAAJ Internet Archive] for Vol. 3)
*''Die Offenbarung Johannis erläutert'' (1849–1851; 2nd ed., 1861–1862; Eng. trans. by P. Fairbairn also in Clark's " Foreign Theological Library," 1851–1852)
**English translation in ([https://archive.org/details/revelationstjoh00unkngoog Internet Archive] for Vol. 1) ([https://archive.org/details/revelationstjoh01henggoog Internet Archive] for Vol. 2).
*''Das Hohelied Salomonis ausgelegt'' (1853).
*''Der Prediger Salomo ausgelegt'' (1859).
**English translation in ([https://archive.org/details/commentaryonecc00simogoog Internet Archive])
*''Das Evangelium Johannis erläutert'' (1861–1863; 2nd ed., 1867–1871 English translation, 1865).
*''Die Weissagungen das Propheten Ezechiel erläutert'' (1867–1868).
**English translation in ([https://books.google.com/books?id=MAAVAAAAYAAJ Google Books])
Of minor importance are:

*''De rebus Tyrioruz commentatio academica'' (1832).
*''Uber den Tag des Herrn'' (1852).
*''Da Passe, ein Vortrag'' (1853).
*''Die Opfer der heiligen Schrift'' (1859).

Several series of papers also, as, for example:

*"The Retentio of the Apocrypha".
*"Freemasonry" (1854).
*"Duelling" (1856).
*"The Relation between the Jews and the Christian Church" (1857; 2nd ed., 1859), which originally appeared in the ''Kirchenzeitung'', were afterwards printed in a separate form.

Posthumously published:

*''Geschichte des Reiches Gottes unter dem Alten Bunde'' (1869–1871).
*''Das Buch Hiob erläutert'' (1870–1875).
*''Vorlesungen über die Leidensgeschichte''.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm |volume=13 |page=269}}
* Martin Gerhardt (fortgeführt von Alfred Adam): ''Friedrich von Bodelschwingh. Ein Lebensbild aus der deutschen Kirchengeschichte.'' 1.&nbsp;Bd. 1950, 2.&nbsp;Bd. 1. Hälfte 1952, 2. Hälfte 1958.
* [[Joachim Mehlhausen]]: Artikel ''Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm.'' In: [[Theologische Realenzyklopädie|TRE]] 15, S. 39–42.
* {{Cite ADB|11|737|747|Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm|Otto von Ranke|ADB:Hengstenberg, Wilhelm}}
* {{NDB|8|522|523|Hengstenberg, Wilhelm|[[Karl Kupisch]]|118773917}}
* Hans Wulfmeyer: ''Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg als [[Konfessionalist]].'' Erlangen 1970.
* {{BBKL|h/hengstenberg_e_w|autor=Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz|artikel=Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm|band=2|spalten=713–714}}
* Helge Dvorak: ''Biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Burschenschaft.'' Band I: Politiker, Teilband 2: F–H. Heidelberg 1999, S. 297.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg}}
* {{DNB-Portal|118773917}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=34591| name=Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg}}
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=tIhJAAAAMAAJ&dq=Hengstenberg+and+His+Influence+on+German+Protestantism&pg=PA108 Hengstenberg and His Influence on German Protestantism] The Methodist Review 1862, vol. XLIV, p.&nbsp;108

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1802 births]]
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[[Category:People from Fröndenberg]]
[[Category:People from the County of Mark]]
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[[Category:19th-century German Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:University of Bonn alumni]]
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[[Category:19th-century Lutherans]]