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Heinrich Georg August Ewald (1803–1875), Protestant theologian; scholar of the Bible, Israelite history, and Semitic languages. Ewald was a pupil of J. G. Eichhorn. He served as professor at Goettingen (1827–37, 1848–67) and Tuebingen (1838–48). He was twice dismissed from his post - once in 1837 for protesting against the abolition of the Hanoverian constitution by the king, and again in 1867 for refusing to swear allegiance to the king of Prussia. He favored the traditional interpretation of the Bible; his chief concern was understanding the personalities of biblical figures, particularly the prophets. In accordance with the concept of destiny proposed by Hegel, Ewald regarded the history of Israel from Moses to Ezra as the means by which divine providence had chosen to reveal the true faith to mankind.
Ewald also did research on Hebrew and Arabic grammar and on the medieval works of Hebrew grammar, which were written in Arabic. He is considered the father of the theory of Hebrew syntax. In his Kritische Grammatik der hebraeischen Sprache (1827–808; pt. 3 trans. as syntax of the Hebrew of the Old Testament, 1879), he attempted to discover the principles which determine linguistic forms and explain them. J. Wellhausen, T. Noeldeke, and A.Dillmann, were among his pupils. His books include: Die Komposition der Genesis kritisch untersucht (1823); Grammatica critica linguae arabicae... (2 vols., Leipzig 1831–33); Die Dichter des Alten Bundes erklaert (2 vols., 1966–67); Die Propheten des Alten Bundes erklaert (3 vols., 1867–682); Geschichte des Volkes Israel bis Christus (5 vols., 1843–55; 7 vols., 1851–59); The History of Israel (8 vols., 1883– ), according to H. Graetz a turning point in the treatment of Jewish history by Christian scholars; Ausfuehrliches Lehrbuch der hebraeischen Sprache des Alten Bundes (1870); and Theologie des Alten und Neuen Bundes (1871–78).
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