He was born atReichenbach im Vogtland and was educated at theUniversity of Leipzig (1867–71). Afterwards, he worked as a religious instructor at the Royal Realgymnasium inDöbeln (1871–76) and at theThomasschule zu Leipzig (1876–79).[1] He then became a lecturer (1879) and an associate professor of theology (1885) at the University of Leipzig. In 1888 he became a full professor atRostock and in 1900 at theUniversity of Bonn,[2] where, as a theologian attackingPanbabylonism, he became involved in the so-called "Babel-Bible Dispute".[3]
As a linguist he attempted to apply the phonetic and physiological methods of modernphilology to Hebrew and Ethiopic in such works as
Gedanke, Laut und Accent als die drei Factoren der Sprachbildung (1874) – Thought, sound, and accent: as the three factors of language formation comparatively and physiologically represented in Hebrew.
Neue Studien über Schrift: Aussprache und allgemeine Formenlehre des Aethiopischen (1877) – New studies on Scripture: pronunciation and general morphology of Ethiopian.
Historisch-kritisches Lehrgebäude der Hebräischen Sprache, 3 books, (1881–97) – Historical-critical teaching of the Hebrew language.[4]
Among his innumerable publications are also:
Religious History of Israel (1885); translation ofDie Hauptprobleme der Altisraelitischen Religionsgeschichte (1884).
Einleitung in das Alte Testament (1893).
The exiles' book of consolation contained in Isaiah XL-LXVI : a critical and exegetical study; translated from the German by J.A. Selbie (1899).
The Emphatic State in Aramaic (1901)[1] In: The American Journal of Semitic Language Vol. 17, No. 4, Jul., 1901.
Neueste Prinzipien der alttestamentlichen Kritik (1902).
Bible and Babylon : Their Relationship in the History of Culture, translated by William Turnbull (1903). Pilter Kessinger Publishing Company 2006,ISBN978-1-4254-8608-2; translation ofBibel und Babel : eine kulturgeschichtliche Skizze (1902).
Die Gottesfrage und der Ursprung des Alten Testaments (1903).
Ahasver der ewige Jude nach seiner ursprünglichen Idee und seiner literarischen Verwertung betrachtet (1907).
Geschichte des Reiches Gottes bis auf Jesus Christus (1908).
Hebräisches und aramäisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament (1910)[2]
Geschichte der alttestamentlichen Religion, kritisch dargestellt (1912).
