GRESSMANN, HUGO°

GRESSMANN, HUGO ° (1877–1927), German Protestant theologian, student of the Bible and the ancient Orient. His teachers included J. *Wellhausen, A. Eichhorn, and M. *Lidzbarski. Gressmann received his doctorate at Goettingen in 1900. In 1902–07 he taught in Kiel; from 1907 until his death he was professor of Bible at the University of Berlin. His main scholarly work was on the history of Israel's religion. A disciple of Gunkel, his approach was based on the analysis of literary genres and motifs. He acquired an interest in Palestinian archaeology after working with G. Dalman in Jerusalem and Petra. This led him to attempt to discover the influence of the Palestinian geographic milieu on the world view of Israel and on the way of life of the early inhabitants of Palestine. The same interest in realia led to the production of a monumental volume of translated ancient Near Eastern texts and an accompanying volume of illustrations relevant to biblical studies. Gressmann also created a scholarly institute in Berlin for research on post-biblical Judaism. His principal works are: Der Ursprung der israelitisch-jüdischen Eschatologie (1905), Die aelteste Geschichtsschreibung und Prophetie Israels (1910, 1921²), Mose und seine Zeit (1913), Das Weihnachtsevangelium (1914), and Der Messias (1929). He edited the Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament (1926²) and the Altorientalische Bilder zum Alten Testament (1927²); Gressman also edited the third edition of Bousset's Die Religion des Judentums im spaethellenistischen Zeitalter (1926³).

add. bibliography:

W. Thiel, in: dbi, 1:467–68.

[Moshe Zevi (Moses Hirsch) Segal /

S. David Sperling (2^nd ed.)]