WELLHAUSEN, JULIUS (1844-1918), German biblical scholar and Orientalist, was born at Hameln on the Weser, West phalia, on May 17, 1844. Having studied theology at the university of Gottingen under Heinrich Ewald, he established himself there in 1870 as Privatdozent for Old Testament history. In 1872 he was appointed professor ordinarius of theology in Greifswald. Resigning in 1882 owing to conscientious scruples, he became pro fessor extraordinarius of oriental languages in the faculty of phil ology at Halle, was elected professor ordinarius at Marburg in 1885, and was transferred to Gottingen in 1892. Wellhausen made his name famous by his critical investigations into Old Testament history and the composition of the Hexateuch, the uncompro mising scientific attitude he adopted in testing its problems bringing him into antagonism with the older school of biblical interpreters. He died at Gottingen on Jan. 7, 1918.
5th German edition, 1899 ; first published in 1878 as Geschichte Israels) ; Muhammed in Medina (Berlin, 1882) ; Die Komposition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bucher des Allen Testaments (1889, 3rd ed. 1899) ; Israelitische and jiidische Geschichte (1894, 4th ed. 1901) ; Reste arabischen Heidentums (1897) ; Das arabische Reich and sein Sturz (1902) ; Skizzen and Vorarbeiten. (1884-99) ; and new and revised editions of F. Bleek's Einleitung in des Alte Testament (4-6, 1878-93). In 1906 appeared Die christliche Religion, mit Ein schluss der israelitisch-jiidischen Religion, in collaboration with A. Jiilicher, A. Harnack and others. He also did useful and interesting work as a New Testament commentator. He published Das Evangelium Marci, Ubersetzt und erkliirt in 1903, Das Evangelium Matthdi and Das Evangelium Lucae in 1904, and Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien in 1905.