Hugo Gressmann
Encyclopedia
Hugo Gressmann was born on March 21, 1877 in Mölln (Germany). He was a prominent Old Testament scholar and a friend and associate of the eminent scholar Hermann Gunkel
Hermann Gunkel
Hermann Gunkel was a German Protestant Old Testament scholar. He is noted for his contribution to form criticism and the study of oral tradition in biblical texts. He was an outstanding representative of the "History of Religion School."...

.

Gattungsgeschichte Method

Gressmann carried over the work of Gunkel in which he used the Gattungsgeschichte method of Biblical study (otherwise known as Form Criticism
Form criticism
Form criticism is a method of biblical criticism that classifies units of scripture by literary pattern and that attempts to trace each type to its period of oral transmission. Form criticism seeks to determine a unit's original form and the historical context of the literary tradition. Hermann...

) and applied it to the books of Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings, in the Old Testament.

He took a traditio-historical approach in examining these passages, aiming to examine individual units so as to glean from them their original setting and purpose.

Conflict with the ideas of Wellhausen

Gressmann was significant in that he disagreed with the ideas of Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen , was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, noted particularly for his contribution to scholarly understanding of the origin of the Pentateuch/Torah ....

, another eminent Biblical scholar, on the dates of the Decalogue (more commonly known as the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

). Whereas Wellhausen placed the date at a relatively late stage in the history of Israel, Gressmann argued that, as they bore no evidence of having been influenced by Canaan, they must have been composed at a far earlier stage in Israel's history. Furthermore, he argued that they were older than the Prophets.
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