ERMAN, JOHANN PETER ADOLF

ERMAN, JOHANN PETER ADOLF (1854–1937), German Egyptologist, usually cited as Adolf Erman, or A. Erman. Erman studied at Leipzig and Berlin under Georg *Ebers, and then became director of the Egyptian Section of the Berlin Museum and professor of Egyptology (1884–1923). Primarily a philologist, his work established a solid foundation for all subsequent philological study in ancient Egyptian. At the turn of the 20^th century, under the auspices of the Prussian Academy of Science, he began work on the great dictionary of the Egyptian language, the Woerterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache (vol. 1, 1926). The second revised edition of his Neuaegyptische Grammatik (1933²), dictated from memory when he was virtually blind, still remains the standard grammar of Late Egyptian. In addition to numerous philological, technical works, he wrote popular books on Egyptian literature, culture, and art. In an article "Eine aegyptische Quelle der Sprueche Salomos" (in Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen (Preussischen) Akademie der Wissenschaften, 15 (1924), 86–93), Erman maintained the direct relationship of Proverbs 22:17–24:22 to the Instruction of Amen-em-opet. This had considerable repercussions in biblical studies, for scholars began to see the close, sometimes direct, relationship of biblical wisdom literature to ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature. Erman, himself a Protestant, was of Jewish descent, and although not actively persecuted, suffered indignity and humiliation under the Nazis until his death in Berlin. His autobiography Mein Werden und mein Wirken appeared in 1929.

bibliography:

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 23 (1937), 81; 24 (1938), 231.

[Alan Richard Schulman and

Michael Fox]