Benary Ferdinand

Benary Ferdinand a Protestant theologian and Orientalist of Germany, was born of Jewish parentage, March 22, 1805, at Cassel. He studied Oriental languages at Halle under Gesenius. In 1829 he joined the Christian Church, and in 1835 received the degree of doctor of divinity at the Halle University in consideration of his work De Hebrceorum Leviratu; accedunt Conjectanea qucedam in Vetus Testamentum (Berolini, 1835). About this time he received a call as professor of Oriental languages from St. Petersburg, but he declined this offer at the wish of the minister Altenstein, who appointed him professor of theology at the university in Berlin, where he lectured on Old-Test. exegesis, Shemitic languages, and paleography. He died Feb. 7, 1880. (B. P.)