KÖNIG, EDUARD. — A learned philologist and exegete of the Old Testament, born at Reichenbach on 15 November 1846, died at Bonn on 12 February 1936. A conservative Protestant, he taught at the Universities of Leipzig (from 1885), Rostock, and finally Bonn.
He published many important works; he also wrote for *Biblia*. His greatest merits lie in the field of Hebrew philology and as a courageous, tenacious, and intelligent opponent (despite his sometimes overly dogmatic tone and certain debatable opinions) of the Wellhausen system and allied critical approaches. Notable is his insistence on distinguishing between legitimate religion and “popular” religion in the Old Testament.
There is no bibliography of his numerous writings: some philological, such as *Historisch-kritisches Lehrgebäude der hebr. Sprache* (3 vols., Leipzig 1881–97; a principal work, a valuable mine of information on biblical Hebrew); *Stylistik, Rhetorik und Poetik in Bezug auf die bild. Literatur* (ibid. 1900); *Die Poesie des Alten Test.* (ibid. 1907); *Hebräisches und aramäisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Test.* (ibid. 1910; 5th ed. ibid. 1931); others exegetical, such as commentaries on several individual books of the Bible, and *Der Offenbarungsbegriff des Alten Test.* (2 vols., Leipzig 1882); *Die Hauptprobleme der altisrael. Religionsgeschichte* (ibid. 1884); *Einleitung in das Alte Testament* (Bonn 1893); *Die Originalität des neulich entdeckten hebr. Sirachtextes textkritisch, exegetisch und sprachgeschichtlich untersucht* (Freiburg 1899); *Das alttest. Prophetenum und die moderne Geschichtsforschung* (Gütersloh 1910); *Geschichte der alttest. Religion* (ibid. 1912; 2nd ed. ibid. 1915; 3rd–4th ed. ibid. 1924); *Die moderne Pentateuchkritik und ihre neueste Bekämpfung* (Leipzig 1914); *Die messianischen Weissagungen des Alten Test.* (Stuttgart 1923); *Der doppelte Wellhausenismus im Lichte meiner Quellenforschung* (Gütersloh 1927); *Ist die moderne Pentateuchkritik auf Tatsachen begründet?* (Stuttgart 1933). To these works must be added the numerous articles that K. published in various periodicals.