Julius Wellhausen

Julius Wellhausen (May 17, 1844 – January 7, 1918), was a German biblical scholar and orientalist. In the course of his career, he moved from Old Testament research through Islamic studies to New Testament scholarship. Wellhausen won renown for his contributions to the composition history of the Pentateuch/Torah and the formative period of Islam. For the former, he is credited with being one of the originators of the documentary hypothesis.

Biography

Wellhausen was born at Hameln in the Kingdom of Hanover, the son of a Protestant pastor. He later studied theology at the University of Göttingen under Georg Heinrich August Ewald and became privatdozent for Old Testament history there in 1870. In 1872 he was appointed professor ordinarius of theology at the University of Greifswald. However, he resigned from the faculty in 1882 for reasons of conscience, stating in his letter of resignation:

He became professor extraordinarius of oriental languages in the faculty of philology at Halle, was elected professor ordinarius at Marburg in 1885, and was transferred to Göttingen in 1892 where he stayed until his death.