Wellhausen, Julius

WELLHAUSEN, JULIUS. - Protestant historian and philologist, b. 17 May 1844 at Hameln (Hanover), d. 7 Jan. 1918 at Göttingen.

In 1872 full professor at Greifswald, he soon renounced the chair because of the controversies aroused by his historical-exegetical writings; he went on to teach Oriental languages at Halle (1882); in 1885 at Marburg, in 1892 at the University of Göttingen, as successor to P. de Lagarde.

W.'s name is intimately linked to the criticism of the origins of the Pentateuch (v.). Applying and developing the source theory already proposed by K. von Graf, he became the leader of the new hypothesis of the various documents. W. set out his ideas in the Geschichte Israels (Berlin 1878), which, reworked, reappeared in 1883 under the titles Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (6th ed. 1905) and Die Komposition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bücher des Alt. Test. (3rd ed. 1899). W.'s ideas met with very lively criticism, but in general his theory in the rationalistic field was accepted and often exaggerated. Only much later did people begin to call no small number of his principles back into question. Among W.'s other works on the Old Testament are remembered: Der Text der Bücher Samuelis (Göttingen 1871); The book of Psalms in P. Haupt's "polychrome" Bible (Leipzig 1895); Die kleinen Propheten (Berlin 1898); Israelitische und jüdische Geschichte (ibid. 1894; 8th ed. 1921).

W. then devoted himself to the study of the New Testament, showing the same independence of judgment in presenting hypotheses. His ideas, however, in this field had very scant success. He supposed for the Gospels a fundamental text which, with various additions, would have constituted Mark. In the Gospel of John he pointed to a primitive writing which used Mark and Luke, then reworked in such a way as no longer to appear individual in its details. On the New Testament W. wrote: Die Pharisäer und die Sadducäer (Greifswald 1874; 2nd ed. Hanover 1924); Das Evangelium Marci (Berlin 1903; 2nd ed. 1909); Das Evangelium Lucae (ibid. 1904); Das Evangelium Matthaei (ibid. 1904; 2nd ed. 1914); Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien (ibid. 1905; 2nd ed. 1911); Das Evangelium Johannis (ibid. 1908). W. also made important contributions to Arab history and philology. Here it suffices to recall Reste des arabischen Heidentums (in Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, III, Berlin 1887; 2nd ed. 1897); Medina vor dem Islam and Muhammeds Gemeindeordnung von Medina (Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, IV, ibid. 1889); Prolegomena zur ältesten Geschichte des Islam (Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, VI, ibid. 1899); Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz (ibid. 1902).

Angelo Penna