Karl August Wünsche (August 22, 1838, Hainewalde bei Zittau - November 15, 1912,

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

) was a German

Christian Hebraist A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew texts who approaches the works from a Christian perspective. The main area of study is the Hebrew text of the Bible (known as the Old Testament to Christians and as the Tanakh to Jews), but Christians ha ...

. He devoted his attention almost exclusively to

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

. After completing his commentaries on the ''

Book of Hosea The Book of Hosea () is collected as one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Tanakh, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament where it has fourteen chapters. According to the ...

'' (1868) and ''

Book of Joel The Book of Joel (Hebrew language, Hebrew: ספר יוֹאֵל ''Sefer Yo'él'') is a Judaism, Jewish prophetic text containing a series of "divine announcements". The first line attributes authorship to "Joel the son of Pethuel". It forms part o ...

'' (1872), he wrote ''Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrasch'' (1878), the most complete collection of the parallel passages of the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

and the

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 ...

since the works of

John Lightfoot John Lightfoot (29 March 1602 – 6 December 1675) was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Life He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of ...

and Johann Christian Schöttgen. In his ''Bibliotheca Rabbinica'' (Leipzig, 1880–85) he made a German translation of the whole of the '' Midrash Rabbah'' and the '' Midrash to the Five Megillot'', and he also translated

haggadic Aggadah (, or ; ; 'tales', 'legend', 'lore') is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic texts that incorporat ...

portions of the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

(1880) and of the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

(1886–89), as well as the '' Pesiḳta'' (1885) and the '' Midrash to the Psalms'' (1891). Smaller works of his are: *''Die Rätselweisheit bei den Hebräern'' (1883) *''Die Freude im Alten Testament'' (1896); "Naturbildersprache des Alten Testaments" (1897) *''Die Schönheit der Bibel'' (Leipzig, 1905) Together with Jakob Winter he compiled the ''Geschichte der Jüdischen Litteratur'' (3 vols., Leipzig, 1892–95).

References

* Joseph Kürschner, ''Deutscher Litteratur-Kalender'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wuensche, August 1839 births 1913 deaths 19th-century German people Christian Hebraists German Hebraists German scholars German biblical scholars Old Testament scholars German male non-fiction writers