Edouard Guillaume Eugène Reuss (; 18 July 1804 – 15 April 1891) was a Protestant

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

from Alsace.

Life

He was born at

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, where he studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

(1819–1822). He went on to study theology at

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

under

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (16 October 1752, in Dörrenzimmern – 27 June 1827, in Göttingen) was a German Protestant theologian of the Enlightenment and an early orientalist. He was a member of the Göttingen school of history. Education and ...

; and

Oriental Languages Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, ...

at Halle under

Wilhelm Gesenius Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius (3 February 178623 October 1842) was a German orientalist, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, Lutheran theologian, Biblical scholar and critic. Biography Gesenius was born at Nordhausen. In 1803 he bec ...

, and afterwards at Paris under

Silvestre de Sacy Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (; 21 September 175821 February 1838), was a French nobleman, linguist and orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist. Life and works Early life Silvestre de Sacy was born in Pa ...

(1827–28). In 1828 he became ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

'' at Strasbourg. From 1829 to 1834 he taught

Biblical criticism Modern Biblical criticism (as opposed to pre-Modern criticism) is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible without appealing to the supernatural. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical c ...

and Oriental languages at the Strasbourg Theological School; he then became assistant, and afterwards, in 1836, regular professor of theology at that university. He became Professor of Old Testament at the same institution in 1864. Reuss was appointed as a regular member of the in May 1846. The sympathies of Reuss were German rather than French, and after the annexation of

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

to Germany he remained at Strasbourg, and retained his professorship till he retired on a pension in 1888. He died in the same city. Reuss belonged to the liberals in the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine The Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine (, EPCAAL; , ''Kirche A.B. von Elsass und Lothringen''; ) is a Lutheran church of public-law corporation status (établissement public du culte) in France. The ambit of the ...

. His critical position was to some extent that of K. H. Graf and

Julius Wellhausen Julius Wellhausen (17 May 1844 – 7 January 1918) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist. In the course of his career, his research interest moved from Old Testament research through Islamic studies to New Testament scholarship. Wellhau ...

: he was in a sense their forerunner, and was actually for a time Graf's teacher. The originator of the new movement, he hesitated to publish the results of his studies. His son, Ernst Rudolf (1841–1924), was in 1873 appointed city librarian at Strasbourg.

Works

Amongst his earliest works were: (1829), (1840) and ''Die Johanneische Theologie'' (1847). In 1852 he published his , which was followed in 1863 by . In 1874 he began to publish his translation of the Bible, .

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

criticism and

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...

formed the subject of Reuss's earlier labours—in 1842, he had published in German a history of the books of the New Testament, ''Geschichte der heiligen Schriften N. Test.''; and though his own views were liberal, he opposed those of the Tübingen school. After a time he turned his attention to

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

criticism, based on knowledge of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. In 1881 he published in German his , a history of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

from its earliest beginning till the taking of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...

. For many years Reuss edited with A. H. Cunitz the . With A. H. Cunitz and J. W. Baum (1809–1878), and after their death alone, he edited the monumental edition of Calvin's works (38 vols., 1863 ff.). His critical edition of the Old Testament appeared a year after his death.

Notes

References

* * Article in Herzog-Hauck, ''Realencyklopädie'' * Otto Pfleiderer, ''Development of Theology in Germany since Kant'' (1890). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reuss, Edouard Guillaume Eugene 1804 births 1891 deaths Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg 19th-century German Protestant theologians German biblical scholars Old Testament scholars New Testament scholars 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers