KÖNIG, EDUARD. - Learned philologist and exegete of the Old Testament, b. at Reichenbach on 15 Nov. 1846, d. at Bonn on 12 Feb. 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 in Biblica. His greatest merits lie in the field of Hebrew philology and as a courageous, tenacious and intelligent opponent (despite a tone at times too decided, and some debatable opinions) of the Wellhausenian system and of related critical approaches. Noteworthy is the insistence with which he advocated the distinction between legitimate religion and "popular" religion in the Old Testament.
A bibliography of his numerous writings is lacking: some philological, such as Historisch-kritisches Lehrgebäude der hebr. Sprache (3 vols., Leipzig 1881-97: his principal work, a precious mine for biblical Hebrew); Stylistik, Rhetorik and Poetics in Relation to Biblical Literature (ibid. 1900); Die Poetie des Altes Test. (ibid. 1907); Hebräisches und aramäisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Test. (ibid. 1910; 5th ed. ibid. 1931); other exegetical works, such as the commentaries on several individual books of the Bible, and Der Offenbarungsbegriff des Alten Test. (2 vols., Leipzig 1882); Die Hauptprobleme der altsrael. Religionsgeschichte (ibid. 1884); Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Bonn 1893); Die Originalität des neulich entdeckten hebr. Strachtextes textkritisch, exegetisch und sprachgeschichtlich untersucht (Freiburg 1899); Das altset. Prophetentum und die moderne Geschichtsforschung (Gütersloh 1910); Geschichte der altset. Religion (ibid. 1912; 2nd ed. ibid. 1915; 3rd-4th ed. ibid. 1924); Die moderne Pentateuchkritik und ihre neueste Bekämpfung (Leipzig 1914); Die messianischen Weisagungen des Altes Test. (Stuttgart 1923); Der doppelte Wollhausenismus in Lichte meiner Quellenforschungen (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.