HITZIG, FERDINAND (1807-75), German biblical critic, was born on June 23, 1807, at Hauingen, Baden, and studied theology at Heidelberg, Halle and Gottingen. Returning to Heidelberg he became Privatdozent in theology in 1829, and in 1831 published his Begriff der Kritik am Alten Testamente prak tisch erortert, in which he explained the critical principles of the grammatico-historical school, and his Des Propheten Jonas Orakel uber Moab, an exposition of chapters 15 and 16 of Isaiah attri buted by him to the prophet Jonah mentioned in 2 Kings xiv. 25. In 1833 he went to Zurich as professor of theology, and in 1861 to Heidelberg, where he died on June 22, 1875. As a Hebrew philologist Hitzig holds high rank; and as a constructive critic he is remarkable for acuteness and sagacity. As a historian, a number of his speculations have been considered fanciful.
His chief works include commentaries on Isaiah (1833) , on the Psalms (1835, 2nd ed., 1863-65) ; on the minor prophets (1838, 3rd ed., 1863) ; on Jeremiah (1841, 2nd ed., 1866) ; archaeological mono graphs, the Gesch. des Volkes Israel (1869) , Zur Kritik paulinischer Brie f e (187o) and Sprache u. Sprachen Assyriens (1871) . See Herzog Hauck's Realencyklopdidie.