Hugo Gressmann (21 March 1877 – 6 April 1927) was a prominent Old Testament scholar in Protestant Germany and a friend and associate of the eminent scholar
Hermann Gunkel
Hermann Gunkel (23 May 1862 – 11 March 1932), a German Old Testament scholar, founded form criticism. He also became a leading representative of the history of religions school.
His major works cover Genesis and the Psalms, and his major inte ...
. He was a member of the
history of religions school
The history of religions school (German: ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'') is a term applied to a group of German Protestant theologians associated with the University of Göttingen in the 1890s.
Ideas
The ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'' used ...
.
Early life
He was born on 21 March 1877 in
Mölln, in the
Province of Schleswig-Holstein
The Province of Schleswig-Holstein (german: Provinz Schleswig-Holstein ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia (subsequently the Free State of Prussia after 1918) from 1868 to 1946.
History
It was created from the Duchies of Schleswig and H ...
.
''Gattungsgeschichte'' method
Gressmann carried over the work of Gunkel in which he used the ''Gattungsgeschichte'' method of Biblical study (otherwise known as
Form Criticism
Form criticism as a method of biblical criticism classifies units of scripture by literary pattern and then attempts to trace each type to its period of oral transmission."form criticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica ...
) and applied it to the books of Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings, in the Old Testament.
He took a traditio-historical approach in examining these passages, aiming to examine individual units so as to glean from them their original setting and purpose.
Conflict with the ideas of Wellhausen
Gressmann was significant in that he disagreed with the ideas of
Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen (17 May 1844 – 7 January 1918) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist. In the course of his career, he moved from Old Testament research through Islamic studies to New Testament scholarship. Wellhausen contributed to t ...
, another eminent Biblical scholar, on the dates of the Decalogue (more commonly known as the
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
). Whereas Wellhausen placed the date at a relatively late stage in the history of Israel, Gressmann argued that, as they bore no evidence of having been influenced by Canaan, they must have been composed at a far earlier stage in Israel's history. Furthermore, he argued that they were older than the Prophets.
Death
Gressmann died on 6 April 1927 in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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[http://www.britannica.com, op. cit.]
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gressmann, Hugo
1877 births
1927 deaths
People from Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein
People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein
19th-century German Protestant theologians
20th-century German Protestant theologians
German biblical scholars
Old Testament scholars
19th-century German male writers
German male non-fiction writers