Heinrich Julius Holtzmann

Heinrich Julius Holtzmann (7 May 1832 – 4 August 1910), German Protestant theologian, son of Karl Julius Holtzmann (1804–1877), was born at Karlsruhe, where his father ultimately became prelate and counsellor to the supreme consistory (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat) of the Evangelical State Church in Baden.

He studied at Berlin, and eventually (1874) was appointed professor ordinarius at the University of Strasbourg. A moderately liberal theologian, he became best known as a New Testament critic and exegete, being the author of the Commentary on the Synoptics (1889; 3rd ed., 1901), the Johannine books (1890; 2nd ed., 1893), and the Acts of the Apostles (1901), in the series Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament.

On the question of the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels, Holtzmann in his early work, Die synoptischen Evangelien, ihr Ursprung und geschichtlicher Charakter (The Synoptic Gospels: Their Origin and Historical Character; Leipzig, 1863), presents a view which has been widely accepted, maintaining the priority of Mark, deriving Matthew in its present form from Mark and from Matthew's earlier "collection of Sayings," the Logia of Papias, and Luke from Matthew and Mark in the form in which we have them. This view was a modified version of Christian Weisse's hypothesis.

Other noteworthy works are the Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in das Neue Testament (1885, 3rd ed., 1892), and the Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Theologie (2 vols., 1896–1897). He also collaborated with Richard Otto Zöpffel in the preparation of a small Lexikon für Theologie und Kirchenwesen (1882; 3rd ed., 1895), and in 1893 became editor of the Theologischer Jahresbericht.

Holtzmann died in Baden-Baden-Lichtental.

References