KEIL, KARL FRIEDRICH. - Protestant-Lutheran exegete, of conservative tendency, an enemy of criticism, b. at Lauterbach, near Oelsnitz (Saxony), on 26 Feb. 1807, d. at Rödnitz, near Glauchau (Saxony), on 5 May 1888. He attended the Universities of Dorpat (Estonia) and then of Berlin, where he became the most important disciple of E. W. Hengstenberg.
The first work, Apologetischer Versuch über die Bücher der Chronik und die Integrität des Buches Isra (1833), was dedicated to the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, a great patroness of K. A teacher (1833) at Dorpat, in 1837 extraordinary professor, in 1838 he became ordinary professor at the same University until 1858. In 1859 he was at Leipzig, where, in collaboration with Franz Delitzsch, he devoted himself to the voluminous Biblischer Kommentar über das Alte Testament.
His other works, printed at Leipzig: Über die Hiram-Salomonische Schifffahrt nach Ophir und Tarsi (1834); Der Tempel Salomons (1839); Einleitung in die kanonischen Schriften des Alten Testamentes (1853; 2nd ed., 1858; 3rd ed., 1873); Biblische Archäologie (1858-59); Genesis, Exodus (1861; 3rd ed., 1878); Samuel (1865; 2nd ed., 1875); Die zwölf kleinen Propheten (1867; 3rd ed., 1888, with K.'s biography at the beginning of the book); Daniel (1869); Chronik, Esra, Nehemia und Esther (1870); Jeremia (1872); Josue, Richter und Ruth, (2nd ed., 1874); Die Bücher der Makhabäer (1875); Die Bücher der Könige (2nd ed., 1876); Ezechiel (2nd ed., 1882). On the New Testament he published: Commentar über das Evangelium des Matthäus (1877); Marcus und Luca (1879); Johannes (1881); Comm. über die Briefe des Petrus und Judas (1883); Comm. über den Brief an die Hebräer (1885).
His characteristic essays—diligent, learned, rich in erudition, but sometimes unbalanced and even false—can be read, for example, on Mt. 26:17 and Jn. 18:28, Lk. 2:1-5, etc.
Raimondo Köbert