The New International Encyclopædia/Ewald, Georg Heinrich August von

EWALD, ā′vȧlt, Georg Heinrich August von (1803-75). A German Orientalist and theologian. He was born and educated at Göttingen, and in 1823 was appointed instructor in the gymnasium of Wolfenbüttel. In the following year he was made lecturer in the theological faculty of Göttingen, and three years later he became professor extraordinarius of Oriental languages. His full professorship was granted him in 1831. Having become involved, together with the brothers Grimm, Dahlmann, Gervinus, Albrecht, and Weber, in the protest against the abrogation of the Constitution which the King of Hanover had been obliged to grant in 1830, Ewald was removed from his professorship in 1837. He went in the following year to Tübingen as professor in the philosophical faculty, from which he changed in 1841 to the theological. Here, however, he became involved in controversies with the Catholics, Hegelians, and Pietists. He left Tübingen after having been ennobled by the King of Württemberg, and was reinstated in his old position at Göttingen in 1848. For many years, in addition to his professorial duties, Ewald was engaged in active support of the movement for Protestant reform in Germany. After Hanover was annexed to Prussia, in October, 1866, his loyalty to the dethroned dynasty caused him to refuse to take the oath of allegiance to the King of Prussia. As a result of this decision, and of certain expressions of opinion, he was removed from his position, and pensioned in 1868. Ewald represented repeatedly the city of Hanover as a member of the Guelph faction in the North German and German Diets.

Ewald wielded an immense influence as a scholar, and his learning was profound. His work was, however, marred by his dogmatic and controversial spirit. His writings, excepting his expressions on political subjects, which were merely temporary in their interest, were almost entirely on the Old and New Testaments and on Arabic. Among his important contributions to Hebrew philology and theology may be named his Ausführliches Lehrbuch der hebräischen Sprache (8th ed. 1870); Hebräische Sprachlehre für Anfänger (4th ed. 1874); Geschichte des Volkes Israel (7 vols., 3d ed., 1864-70); Die Altertümer des Volkes Israel (3d ed. 1866); and Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott oder Theologie des alten und neuen Bundes (4 vols., 1871-78). Of Ewald's treatises on other Semitic languages, the principal ones are: Grammatica Critica Linguæ Arabicæ (2 vols., 1831-33); Abhandlung über des äthiopischen Buches Henókh Entstehung (1854); Ueber die phönikischen Ansichten von der Weltschöpfung und den geschichtlichen Wert Sanchuniathons (1857). Of a more miscellaneous character are his Sprachwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (3 parts, 1861-71); Verzeichniss der orientalischen Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek zu Tübingen (1839); Ueber einige ältere Sanskritmetra (1827). Ewald was also the founder (1837) and one of the editors of the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes as well as of the Jahrbücher der biblischen Wissenschaft (1849-65).