NOWACK, WILHELM GUSTAV HERMANN°

NOWACK, WILHELM GUSTAV HERMANN ° (1850–1928), German Bible critic. Nowack was professor at Halle, and from 1881, of biblical exegesis and Hebrew in Strasbourg.

Among his writings, the Lehrbuch der hebraeischen Archaeologie (2 vols., 1894) represents a classical armchair approach to Palestinian archaeology in its description of ancient Israelite realia. He prepared the second edition of E. Bertheau and F. *Hitzig's commentaries on Ecclesiastes for the Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Alten Testament (1883²) and the third edition of H. *Hupfeld's commentary on Psalms (2 vols., 1888). He also wrote commentaries on Amos and Hosea for the Religionsgeschichtliche Volksbuecher (vol. 9, 1908). From 1892 to 1903 he served as editor of Goettinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament, to which he contributed the sections on the Minor Prophets (1897; 1922³); Judges (1902); Ruth (1902); and Samuel (1902). He also wrote on the religious development of ancient Israel (Die sozialen Probleme in Israel und deren Bedeutung fuer die religioese Entwicklung dieses Volkes, 1892), and on Israel's role against the background of the Assyrian Near East (Die Zukunftshoffnungen Israels in der assyrischen Zeit, 1902). His other studies on the Bible are: Die Bedeutung des Hieronymus fuer alttestamentliche Textkritik (1875); Die assyrisch-babylonischen Keil-Inscripten und das Alte Testament (1878); and Der Prophet Hosea erklaert (1880). He also prepared the masoretic text of the Minor Prophets for R. *Kittel's Biblia Hebraica (1906).

[Zev Garber]