SCHÜRER, EMIL JOHANN. - Protestant historian, critic, and theologian of the Albrecht Ritschl school (v.), born in Augsburg on 2 May 1844, died in Göttingen on 30 April 1910.
He studied theology at Erlangen, Berlin, and Heidelberg from 1864 to 1866, but earned his doctorate in philosophy at Leipzig in 1868. There he obtained his habilitation in 1869 and was appointed extraordinary professor in 1873. In 1874 he became full professor of New Testament at the newly established Faculty of Theology at the University of Giessen. He then moved to Kiel in 1890 and to Göttingen in 1895, where he remained until his death. His *Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Zeitgeschichte* (Leipzig 1874) went through numerous revised and expanded editions based on comprehensive textual study; it became a classic work under the title *Die Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi* (Leipzig: vol. 1: 2nd ed. 1890, 3rd–4th ed. 1901, 5th ed. 1925; vol. 2: 2nd ed. 1886, 4th ed. 1907–1909; Register, 1902). Though still useful, the work now requires supplementation from many specialized studies in light of new texts and documents. It does not merely treat the external history of the Jewish people from the Maccabees onward, but also their culture, piety, and messianic ideas. Another of Schürer’s merits was founding in 1876 the *Theologische Literaturzeitung* (v.), which critically reviews theological literature worldwide and strives for objectivity grounded in criticism. He edited it from volume 1 (1876) to volume 36 (1910), except for 1881–87, when he entrusted it to A. HARAN (v.), his loyal friend and collaborator, to prepare freely his major work in its second edition.