DÖLLER, JOHANNES. - Exegete and historian of religions, b. at Thuma (Lower Austria) on 27 Apr. 1868, d. at Raabs (ibid.) on 31 Oct. 1928. Ordained a priest in 1891, he was professor of Sacred Scripture at the seminary of St. Pölten (1896), and at the University of Vienna (1905), and from 1918 also co-editor of the Theologische Studien der österreichischen Leugestellschaft. His particular merit lies in having studied various concepts and institutions of the Old Testament in the light of the religions of the ancient East (in religionsgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung).
The principal works of his literary activity are: Compendium hermeneuticae biblicae (Paderborn 1898; 3rd ed. 1914); Rhythmus, Metrik und Strophik in der biblisch-hebräischen Poesie (ibid. 1899); in Theologische Studien he published Geographische und ethnographische Studien zum III. und IV. Buche der Könige (Vienna 1904); Das Gebet im Alten Testament in religionsgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung (ibid. 1914); in Altstamentliche Abhandlungen he studied Die Reinheits- und Speisegesetze des Alten Testaments in religionsgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung (Münster 1917); in Biblische Zeitfragen he dealt with Abraham und seine Zeit (ibid. 1909); Die Messiaserwartung im Alten Testament (ibid. 1911); Das Weib im Alten Testament (ibid. 1920); Die Wahrsagerei im Alten Testament (ibid. 1923). He edited the 7th edition of the Historia sacra Veteris Testamenti by H. Zschokke (Vienna-Leipzig 1920). Adalberto Metzinger