Carl Peter Wilhelm Gramberg (24 September 1797 – 29 March 1830) was a Germantheologian andbiblical scholar.
Gramberg attended university atHalle, where he studied Hebrew Bible and Theology underWilhelm Gesenius andJulius Wegscheider.[1] His major work, in addition to commentaries onChronicles andGenesis,[2] was theKritische Geschichte der Religionsideen des alten Testaments, of which he published two of a projected four volumes before his death inOldenburg at the age of thirty-three.[3]
In theKritische Geschichte, Gramberg divides the history of Old Testament religion into seven periods: (1) Genesis,Exodus, andJudges, reflecting the time of the monarchy fromKing David toHezekiah; (2)Samuel andRuth, originating in the early monarchy but written down just before theBabylonian Exile; (3) the prophetic books ofIsaiah 1-35,Hosea,Joel,Amos,Micah,Nahum, andZephaniah, from the 8th-7th centuries BCE; (4) the cultic regulations ofLeviticus andNumbers, as well asJeremiah,Lamentations,Ezekiel,Habakkuk, andObadiah, from the time of the Babylonian Exile; (5)Kings,Deuteronomy,Joshua, Isaiah 40–66,Proverbs,Job, andJonah, from the end of the Exile; (6) the period of the return from the Exile, represented by, among others, the books ofEzra andNehemiah; and (7) the Persian and Hellenistic periods, in which were written Chronicles,Esther, andDaniel. Gramberg then evaluates the history of Old Testament religion, specifically the priesthood (vol. 1) and the theocratic rulers (vol. 2), in light of this schema. The priests are seen as having consolidated their power as time went on, with the theocracy surviving only in messianic hopes for a glorified Messiah king.
Much of Gramberg's historical division is owed to the work ofW. M. L. de Wette, on whoseBeiträge zur Einleitung in das Alte Testament Gramberg frequently draws.[4] He did not share with de Wette, however, an adherence to the philosophy ofJakob Friedrich Fries. The lasting influence of Gramberg's work, which he was unable to complete in his short lifetime, is most visible inJohann Friedrich Ludwig George's book on Israelite festivals, which extended thehistorical reconstruction of de Wette and Gramberg to its natural conclusion.[5]
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