Printed in Bonn in 1893 by Eduard Weber’s Verlag, Einleitung in das Alte Testament (“Introduction to the Old Testament”) is Eduard König’s foundational work on Old Testament scholarship. Bound in a period half-leather with marbled boards, this volume shows its age honestly: worn spine leather, edge rubbing, and old staining to the endpapers — but the text block remains solid, clean, and fully readable.
This is the First Part of Volume II in König’s Sammlung theologischer Handbücher, covering the structure, authorship, dating, and composition of the Old Testament, including material on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. König was one of the major German philologists of his era, known for engaging both traditional and critical scholarship.
A fantastic shelf piece for historians, theologians, language nerds, or anyone building a serious collection of pre-20th-century biblical studies.
Why This Book Is Significant
Before English-speaking scholars dominated Old Testament criticism, German theological research was the global powerhouse. König stood at the crossroads of traditional theology and the rising historical-critical method. Books like this were the building blocks for the modern study of authorship, canon formation, and the origins of biblical texts.
Owning an 1893 König is like holding an artifact from the era that shaped everything pastors argue about today.