1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spitta, Friedrich

SPITTA, FRIEDRICH (1852–), German Protestant theologian, was born at Wittingen on the 10th of January 1852. His father, Karl Johann Philipp (1801–1859), well known as a hymn-writer (see Lyra domestica, 1st series, London, 1860; 2nd series, 1864), was superintendent at Burgdorf near Hanover. Friedrich studied at Göttingen and Erlangen, and in course of time became (1887) professor ordinarius and university preacher at Strassburg. In 1896 he became joint-editor with J. Smend of the Monatschrift für Gottesdienst und kirchliche Kunst, and he is widely known as the author of a work on the Acts of the Apostles (Die Apostelgeschichte, ihre Quellen und deren geschichtlicher Wert (1891).

His other works include: Der Knabe Jesus, eine biblische Geschichte und ihre apokryphischen Entstellungen (1883), Die Offenbarung des Johannes (1889), Zur Reform des evang. Kultus (1891), and Zur Geschichte und Litteratur des Urchristentums (3 vols., 1893–1901).