Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and biblical scholar
Biblical studies
Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts. For Christianity, the Bible traditionally comprises the New Testament and Old Testament, which together are sometimes called the "Scriptures." Judaism recognizes as scripture only the Hebrew Bible, also known as...
.
Life and Education
He was born at UllaUlla
Ulla may refer to:* Ulla, short for the name Ursula in German-speaking countries* Ulla, short for the name Ulrika in Scandinavian countries* Ulla, a common first name for women in Scandinavian countries...
, near Weimar, where his father was pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
. He was sent to the gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
at Weimar, then at the height of its literary fame. Here he was much influenced by intercourse with Johann Gottfried von Herder, who frequently examined at the school. In 1799 he entered on his theological studies at Jena, his principal teachers being J. J. Griesbach
Johann Jakob Griesbach
Johann Jakob Griesbach , German biblical textual critic, was born at Butzbach, a small town in the state of Hesse, where his father, Konrad Kaspar , was pastor...
and H. E. G. Paulus; from the latter he derived his tendency to free critical inquiry. In addition, by the time he submitted his dissertation in 1804 (September), he was in regular contact at Jena with Jakob Friedrich Fries
Jakob Friedrich Fries
Jakob Friedrich Fries was a German philosopher from Barby .-Life and career:...
and Karl David Ilgen, who perhaps led him to his contact with Johann Severin Vater
Johann Severin Vater
Johann Severin Vater was a German theologian, biblical scholar, and linguist. Following Alexander Geddes, he applied the fragmentary hypothesis to the whole of the Pentateuch, treating it as an aggregate of numerous minor documents that had been compiled together...
, a scholar whose work he both admired and, in some respects, duplicated independently. Both in methods and in results, however, he occupied an almost solitary position among German theologians.
Having taken his doctor's degree, he became Privatdozent at Jena; in 1807 professor of theology at Heidelberg, where he came under the influence of J. F. Fries
Jakob Friedrich Fries
Jakob Friedrich Fries was a German philosopher from Barby .-Life and career:...
(1773-1843), whose hiring he helped arrange (as well as that of Paulus); and in 1810 was transferred to a similar chair in the newly founded Friedrich Wilhelm University
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he became friendly with Friedrich Schleiermacher. He was, however, dismissed from Berlin in 1819 on account of his having written a letter of consolation to the mother of Karl Ludwig Sand
Karl Ludwig Sand
Karl Ludwig Sand was a German university student and member of a liberal Burschenschaft . He was executed in 1820 for the murder of the conservative dramatist August von Kotzebue the previous year in Mannheim...
, the murderer of Kotzebue. A petition in his favour presented by the senate of the university was unsuccessful, and a decree was issued not only depriving him of the chair, but banishing him from the Prussian kingdom.
He retired to Weimar, where he occupied his leisure in the preparation of his edition of Luther, and in writing the romance Theodor oder die Weihe des Zweiflers (1822), in which he describes the education of an evangelical pastor. During this period he began preaching, at which he proved to be very popular. But in 1822 he accepted the chair of theology in the University of Basel
University of Basel
The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...
, which had been reorganized four years before. Though his appointment had been strongly opposed by the orthodox party, De Wette soon won for himself great influence both in the university and among the people generally. He was admitted a citizen, and became rector of the university, which owed to him much of its recovered strength, particularly in the theological faculty.
Studies
De Wette has been described by Julius WellhausenJulius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen , was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, noted particularly for his contribution to scholarly understanding of the origin of the Pentateuch/Torah ....
as "the epoch-making opener of the historical criticism of the Pentateuch." He prepared the way for the Supplement-theory. But he also made valuable contributions to other branches of theology. He had, moreover, considerable poetic faculty, and wrote a drama in three acts, entitled Die Entsagung (Berlin, 1823). He had an intelligent interest in art, and studied ecclesiastical music and architecture. As a Biblical critic he is sometimes classed with the destructive school, but, as Otto Pfleiderer
Otto Pfleiderer
Otto Pfleiderer was a German Protestant theologian.-Biography:He was born at Stetten in Württemberg. From 1857 to 1861 he studied at the University of Tübingen under FC Baur, and afterwards in England and Scotland...
says (Development of Theology), he "occupied as free a position as the Rationalists
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
with regard to the literal authority of the creeds of the church, but that he sought to give their due value to the religious feelings, which the Rationalists had not done, and, with a more unfettered mind towards history, to maintain the connection of the present life of the church with the past." His works are marked by exegetical skill, unusual power of condensation and uniform fairness. Accordingly they possess value which is little affected by the progress of criticism.
Selected works
- Beiträge zur Einleitung in das Alte Testament (2 vols, 1806-1807)
- Lehrbuch der hebräisch-jüdischen Archäologie (1814)
- Über Religion und Theologie (1815); a work of great importance as showing its author's general theological position
- Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmatik (1813-1816)
- Christliche Sittenlehre (1819-1821)
- Einleitung in das Neue Testament (1826)
- Religion, ihr Wesen, ihre Erscheinungsform, und ihr Einfluss auf das Leben (1827)
- Das Wesen des christlichen Glaubens (1846)
- Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Neuen Testament (1836- 1848).
Selected works online
- Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe, Sendschreiben und Bedenken: vollständig aus den verschiedenen Ausgaben seiner Werke und Briefe, aus andern Büchern und noch unbenutzten Handschriften gesammelt, kritish und historisch bearbeitet, 5 vols., Berlin: Georg reimer, vol. 6, ed. by Johann Karl Seidemann - German (FrakturFraktur (typeface)Fraktur is a calligraphic hand and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The word derives from the past participle fractus of Latin frangere...
) and Latin. Reviewed here (July 1845), books.google.com - vol. 1, Erster Theil, 1825
- vol. 2, Zwenter Theil, 1826
- vol. 3, Dritter Theil, 1827
- vol. 4, Vierter Theil, 1827
- vol. 5, Fünfter Theil, 1828
- vol. 6, Sechster Theil, 1856
- Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in die Bibel Alten und Neuen Testamentes, Erster Theil, Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1852
- Commentar über die Psalmen nebst beigefügter Übersetzung, fünfte auflage, herausgegeben von Dr. Gustav Baur, Professor der Theologie an der Universität Giessen, Akademische Verlagshandlung, Heidelberg, 1811, 1856, which passed through several editions, and was long regarded as of high authority.
- An Historico-Critical Introduction to the Canonical Books of the New Testament, Frederick Frothingham, tr., Boston: Crosby, Nichols and Company, 1858
- Lehrbuch der hebräisch-jüdischen Archäologie nebst einem Grundrisse der hebräisch-jüdischen Geschichte, 4th edition, Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1864