BELSER, JOHANNES E
V. von
New Testament exegete, born at Billingendorf in Württemberg on 20 Oct. 1850, died there on 20 Oct. 1916.Ordained priest on 2 Aug. 1875, he served for six years as a parochial vicar at Waldsee. In 1880 he became a professor at the gymnasium-lyceum in Ellwangen, and in 1890 ordinary professor of New Testament at the University of Tübingen.
He was distinguished by his philological precision. He defended the hypothesis proposed by Van Bebber of a single year of public activity by Jesus. Among his numerous publications on the New Testament we note *Einleitung in das N. T.* (Freiburg in Br. 1901, 2nd ed. ibid. 1905), commentaries on the 4th Gospel (ibid. 1905 and 1912), on the Epistle to the Ephesians (ibid. 1905) and 2 Corinthians (ibid. 1910), on the Epistle of James (ibid. 1909 and 1911), and *Geschichte des Leidens und Sterbens, der Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt des Herrn* (ibid. 1903, 2nd ed. 1913). From 1895 he was also co-editor of the series *Biblische Studien* and co-editor of the *Theologische Quartalschrift* of Tübingen.