HITZIG, FERDINAND°

HITZIG, FERDINAND ° (1807–1875), German Protestant theologian and Bible critic. Hitzig was a student of W. *Gesenius in Halle and of G. *Ewald in Göttingen. Hitzig directed much energy against confessional orthodoxy, the religious reaction to critical study manifest in the works of *Hengstenberg. He taught at the universities of Heidelberg (1829–32; 1861–75), and Zurich (1833–61). In his day he was considered one of the leading modern Bible exegetes, noted for ingenious, often bold, textual and exegetical hypotheses. He was among the earliest modern critics who dated the composition of some of the psalms to the Hasmonean period. He enunciated his critical principles at the beginning of his career in a work titled Begriff der Kritik am Alten Testament praktisch erörtert (1831). In the series Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Alten Testament he published his commentaries on the Prophets and Hagiographa: Isaiah (1833), Jeremiah (1841, 1866²), Ezekiel (1847), the Minor Prophets (1838, 1881⁴), Ecclesiastes (with W. Nowack, 1847, 1883²), Proverbs (1847), Daniel (1850), Song of Songs (1855), Psalms (1863), and Job (1874). In 1869 his Geschichte des Volkes Israel, a history of the biblical period, appeared. Vorlesungen über biblische Theologie und messianische Weissagungen des Alten Testaments (1880), on biblical theology and the messianic concept in the Bible, was published posthumously. Other writings deal with the New Testament and Semitic linguistics.

bibliography:

J.J. Kneucker, in: F. Hitzig, Vorlesungen über biblische Theologie… (1880), 1–64; A. Kamphausen, in: Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 8 (1900), 157–62. add. bibliography: J. Rogerson, in: dbi 1, 510–11.