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487 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA clichtel

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The sections in the accounts of the history of Israel as given under AHAB, the appropriate sections in the commentaries on Judges (see JUDGES), especially those by Bertheau, Budde and Moore, and DB, ii. 171-172; EB, ii. 1719-22; JE, v. 880-662; R. Bittel, Studien sur hebrdischen Archdologie, i. 97-104, Leipsie, 1908.

GIESEBRECHT, gi"ze-brest, FRIEDRICH WILHELM KARL: German Protestant; b. at Kontopp (50 m. s.w. of Posen) July 30, 1852. He studied in Erlangen and Halle (Ph.D., 1876), and from 1876 to 1879 was in charge of the courses in Old Testament exegesis end adjunct at the royal seminary for canons at Berlin. In 1879 he became privatdocent at Greifswald, and was appointed associate professor of Old Testament exegesis in the same university in 1883. In 1895 he was made honorary professor there, and since 1898 has been professor of the same subject at K6nigsberg. He has written Die hebrdische Prdposition Lamed (Halls, 1876); Der Wendepunkt des Buches Hiob (Berlin, 1879); Beitrage zur Jesaia-Kritik (GSttingen, 1890); Das Buch Jeremias iibersetzt and erkldrt (1893); Die Berufsbegabung der alttestamentlichen Propheten (1897); Die Geschichtlichkeit des Sinatbundes (Konigaberg, 1900); Die alttestamentliche Schdtzung des Gottesnamens (1901); Der " Knecht Jahves " des Deuterojesaia (1902); Friede fur Babel and Bibel (1903); Grundzuge der israelitischen Religionsgeschichte (Leipsie, 1904); Die Metrik Jeremias (Gottingen, 1905); and commentary on Jeremiah in Hand-Kommenlar zum Allen Testament (1907).

GIESELER, gi'ze-ler, JOHANN KARL LUDWIG:

Church historian; b. at Petershagen (on the Weser, 35 m. w. of Hanover), Prussia, Mar. 3, 1792; d. at Gottingen July 8, 1854. He attended the Latin school of the Orphans' House at Halle and the University of Halle. In 1812 he became collaborator in the Latin school, but the following year joined the German army at the outbreak of the war of liberation. In 1814 lie resumed his activity as teacher, in 1817 he became doctor of philosophy and conrector at the gymnasium of Minden, 1818 director of the gymnasitun at Cleves, and 1819 professor of theology at Bonn. In 1831 he went to Gottingen where he showed administrative talents besides ability as scholar and teacher. His lectures treated church history, history of dogma and dogmatics. Several times he was prorector of the university, he served on different commissions, and was member of the Gbttinger Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften; as curator of the orphans' home, he dispiayed much practical benevolence, and he was an active freemason. His principal work is his Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, one of the most remarkable productions of German learning, distinguished by erudition, accuracy, and careful selection of passages from the sources, given in footnotes. The first volume appeared at Darmstadt in 1824; the fifth and last, containing his lectures, and treating the period after 1814, at Bonn, 1857. An English translation from the earlier editions by F. Cunningham, was published at Philadelphia in three volumes, in 1836; another, from the last edition by S. Davidson, in five volumes at Edinburgh, 1848-56 (revised and edited by H. B. Smith and Mary A. Robinson, New York, 1857-81). The

work is characterized by the fundamental principle that every age or period can be understood only in so far as we allow it to speak for itself; the chief task of the historian is to judge objectively and from the sources. His main strength lies therefore in the careful observation of details rather than in a grasp of the unity of events. His standpoint has been characterized as that of a historico-critical rationalism. Of his other writings may be mentioned: Versuch fiber die Entstehung and die fruhesten Schicksale der achriftlichen Evangelien (Leipsie, 1818), against the hypothesis of a primal Aramaic Urevangelium; Ueber den Reichstag zu Augsburg im Jahre 1630 (Hamburg, 1821); Symbolce ad historiam monasterii Lacensis (Bonn,, 1826); an edition of the history of the Manicheans of Petrus Siculus (Gottingen, 1846) and other works devoted to ancient or medieval church history. He treated of modern church history in Riickblick auf die theologischen Richtungen der letzten fiinfzig Jahre (Gottingen, 1837), and Ueber die Lehninsche Weissagung (1849). (N. BONwETSCH.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A sketch of Gieseler's life by E. R. Reepenning is in the last vol. of the Kirchengeschichte, and such a sketch is in vol. i. of the AIn. ed., New York, 1868. Consult: F. Oesterley, Geschichte der UniversitXat Gottingen, pp. 410 aqq., GAttingen, 1838; ADB, ix. 163 sqq.

GIFFORD LECTURES: One of the most important lectureships yet created. Its founder was Adam, Lord Gifford of Edinburgh (d. 1887), an able Scotch jurist and judge of the Court of Sessions, noted not only for his knowledge of jurisprudence, but also for his interest in literature and philosophy. By his will, recorded in the year of his death, the sum of £80,000 was bequeathed, to found a lectureship in Natural Theology at each of the Scotch universities, £25,000 going to Edinburgh, £20,000 each to Glasgow and Aberdeen, and £15,000 to St. Andrews. The terms of the foundation are noteworthy in that the lectures " may be of any religion or way of thinking, or (as is sometimes said) they may be of no religion, or they may be so-called skeptics or agnostics, or freethinkers." The sole qualification is ability to deal as specialists in Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term as a " strictly natural science." The freest research is allowed, without regard to tradition or established belief. The first lectures were delivered at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews in 1888, and at Aberdeen in 1889. Some of the most noted scholars of the century have taught on this foundation, among them John and Edward Caird and Andrew Lang of Scotland, F. Max Miiller and E. B. Tylor of England, Otto Pfleiderer of Germany, C. P. Tiele of Holland, Emile Boutroux of France, R. A. Lanciani of Italy, and Josiah Royce of the United States. A full list of the lecturers and their subjects up to 1906 is given in L. H. Jordan, Com parative Religion, pp. 570-571, New York, 1905.

GIFFTHEIL, gift'hail. LUDWIG FRIEDRICH: An enthusiast of the seventeenth century; d. at Amsterdam 1661. He was the son of an abbot in Wurttemberg, and became noted for his fanatical declamations against the established Church. His literary activity belongs to the period of the Thirty