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EBER. See Table of the Nations.

EBER, e'ber, PAUL: German theologian and Reformer; b. at Kitzingen (11 m. e.s.e, of Würzburg) Nov. 8, 1511; d. at Wittenberg Dec. 10, 1569. He received his first education at home, and attended the schools of Nuremberg, then entered the University of Wittenberg on June I, 1532, where his teachers were Luther and Melanchthon, and in 1537 was made a member of the faculty, being appointed regular professor four years later, first of Latin and then of physics. His lectures comprised the wide range of the liberal arts, although his chief attention was devoted to Latin, history, natural science, and even to anatomy. A versatile literary activity was the result. With the aid of Melanchthon he wrote his Contexta populi Judaici historia

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a reditu ex Babylonico ezilio argue ad ultimum excidium Hierosolymce (Wittenberg, 1548), and with Kasper Peucer he prepared his V ocabula rei nummaria . . vohicrum et pistrium appellationea (1b49). His most famous work is his Calendarium histortcum (1550), written in collaboration with Melanchthon and containing a reformed calendar of the saints with a historical calendar.

Eber's firm attitude during the Schmalkald War of 1548-47 won him the admiration of his colleagues, and on June 21, 1557, he succeeded Johann Forster as professor of the Old Testament and preacher at the Schlosekirche. He accompanied Mehtnchthon to the Colloquy of Worms and acted as secretary, but returned from Worms at Christmas, and succeeded Bugenhagen as municipal preacher and general superintendent of the electoral circuit, Sept. 4, .1558. When Melanchthon died in 1560, his course of lectures was completed by Eber, who, as professor of the Old Testament, was invited by the Elector August to revise the Vulgate of the Old Tes tament for the BtTilia Gernxanico-Latina (1565). He was obliged, however, to complete his work in a year and a half, and he was little pleased with his results. As a preacher he is best known by two volumes published after his death by his pupils, the Evan geliorum dominicalium explicatip (ed. J. Cellarius, Frankfort, 1576) and the Kateehiamusluredigten (ed. T. Feureliue, Nuremberg, 1b77). His most bitter struggles were connected with the controver sies on the nature of the Eucharist. Like Melanch thon, he rejected the ubiquitarianism of Brenz, and frequently approximated the Calvinistic view. Peucer later said in reproach of him that he had been convinced of the truth of the Swiss doctrine as early as 1561, but had suddenly become an opponent of the crypto-Calvinists of Wittenberg after the Dresden conference of Mar. 25, 1561. It is indisputable that on that occasion he advocated a confession which harked back to the Wittenberg Concordia, and henceforth taught a modified Lu theranism which he regarded as the true interpre tation of the Augsburg Confession, defending his views in his Vom heiligen Sakrament des Letba and Bluta unsers Herrn Jean Christi (Wittenberg, 1582), although his course contented neither the Lutherans nor the Reformed. Eber is also famous as an au thor of hymns, of which the best-known are Herr Jesu Christ, taahr'r Mensch urtd Gott (" Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God") and Wenn uwr in hSchaten NSthen sein (" When in the hour of utmost need ").

(F. Kawerau.)

Bibliography: Sources of value for s life are in CR.iii., i:., and in J. Voigt, Briehaachsal der barflhmteakn (iekhrten mit Hsraop AlbrocTK pp. 234 sqq., Königsberg, 1841. Consult also: C. H. Sixt. Dr. Paul E6ar, Heidelberg, 1843; idem, Paul Ebsr. Ein Stuck Witlsnbxpar Lebena, Anebsc6, 1857; T. Preeael, in Lcban and ausgawdAlte Sdvrifkn der Yaw . . . der lutheriaehan Kirche, vol. viii., Elberfeld, 1882; G. Buchwald, Paul Eber, Leipsic, 1897; J. W. Richard. Philip Melaudttrwn, passim, New York, 1898; Julian, Hymndopy, 318, 9.

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