PAULUS, HEINRICH GOTTLOB, a German theologian of great note in his day. and one of the leaders of the nationalists at the close of the last and the first quarter of the present c., was b. at Leouberg, near Stuttgart, Sept. 1, 1761. Ile gave himself to the study of oriental languages at Gottingen, and afterwards prosecuted it in London and Paris. In 1789, lie was called to the professorship of oriental languages at Jena. and in 1793 became professor of geology, on the death of DOderlein. Here lie especially signalized himself by the critical elucidation of the ScriptUres of the Old and New Testa ment, in so far as they presented oriental characteristics. The results of his labors may be seen in his Philologiseh-kritachen lend historischen Commenta• fiber das Xeue Testament vols. Lill). 1800-4); Claris fiber die Psalmen (Jena, 1791); Claris fiber den Jesaias, and other writings belonging to this period of his literary activity. In 1S03 he removed to Wilrzburg; in 1808. Co Bamberg; in 1809, to Nuremberg; and in 1811, to Ansbacb. During these various changes lie had ceased to be a professor, and become a director of ecclesiastical and educational affairs; but in 1811 he accepted the professorship of exegesis and ecclesiastical history at Heidelberg. In 1819 he started a kind of historico political journal entitled Sophronizon, in which lie continued to write for about len years. His contributions were marked by weighty sense, moderation, and knowledge of his various subjects, and won him great applause at the time. As a theologian, he is
generally looked upon as the type of pure unmitigated rationalism—a man who sat down to examine the Bible with the profound conviction that everything in it represented as supernatural was only natural or fabulous, and that true criticism consisted in endeavoring to prove this. From his numerous writings, we select for mention the following. Hemorabilien (Lei p. 1791-96); &mallow der merkieurdigsten Reisen in den Orient (7 vols. Jena, 1792-1803); Leben Jesu als Grundluge einer reins Gesehichte des 1T•eh•istenthums Olt vols. Heidelb. 182S); Airfield relate Beitritge vet. Dogmen-Kirekenund Religionsgeseldebte (Bremen, 1830); and Evegetisches Handbuch fiber die dreiersten Evangelien (3 vols. Ifeldelb. 1830-33). Paulus died Aug. 10, 1831, at the advanced age of 90—having lived long enough to see his own rationalistic theory of Scripture give place to the " mythical ' theory of Strauss, and that in its turn to be shaken to its foundations partly by the efforts of the Tubingen school, and partly by those of Neander and the " broad church " divines of Germany. See Paulus's Skizzen atm rneiner Baklungs-und Lekensgesehichte rum Andenken an mein Jubilaum (Heidelb. 1829), and Heichlin II. H., G. Paulus nand Seine Zeit (2 vols. Stuttg. 1853).