HAHN, AUGUST:

By: Crawford Howell Toy, Karl Heinrich Cornill

German theologian and Orientalist; born at Grossosterhausen, Saxony, March 27, 1792; died in Silesia May 13, 1863. He studied theology and Oriental languages at Leipsic, devoting special attention to Syriac. His treatise on Ephraem the Syrian, published in 1819, led to his appointment as professor at Königsberg, where he published "Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum Primus Hymnologus" (1819) and, in conjunction with his colleague Sieffert, "Chrestomathia Syriaca sive S. Ephraemi Carmina Selecta" (1825). In 1826 he was called to Leipsic as professor of theology and preacher, and there began a vigorous campaign against the rationalism prevailing in theology and the Church. In 1833 he became professor and a member of the consistory of Breslau, and in 1844 was made general superintendent of the province of Silesia, which post he retained until his death. He was best known by his stereotyped edition of the text of the Old Testament, published by the Tauchnitz firm in Leipsic (1833), and of which hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold.

T. K. H. C.