Ilgen, Karl David

Ilgen, Karl David an eminent German theologian, was born February 26, 1763, at the village of Sehna, in Prussian Saxony. When fourteen years old he was able to enter the second class in' the gymnasium of Naumburg; but his parents being unable to give him any further help, he was from that time obliged to depend on his own exertions alone. His struggle for subsistence strengthened his mind, and in 1783, with a good elementary education, he entered the University of Leipzig. Here were written his first essays, which are to be found in the collection of his works entitled Opuscula philologica (Erford, 1797, 2 vols.). He applied himself with particular zeal to the study of the Oriental languages, especially the Hebrew. In 1789 he was called to the rectorship of the Academy of Naumburg, and so distinguished himself as an instructor that five years afterwards he was called as professor of Oriental languages to Jena, and there he was finally transferred to the chair of theology. In spite of his eminent attainments, his bluntness and dryness of manner prevented his being as efficient in his new sphere of action as he might otherwise have been. His learning was better displayed in his writings than in his lectures. He began to write a work on the "Historical Documents of the Temple of Jerusalem," for which he intended to make a thorough investigation of all the Jewish sayings, traditions, and fables, and to compare them with what historical knowledge we possess on the same points, so as to secure a history of the Jews, their political institutions, their mode of divine worship, their moral, religious, and intellectual state, such as would truly have deserved the name of a critically correct history," but, through the agency of G. Hermann, this work was interrupted by a call as rector to Pforte (in Prussian Saxony) (1802). He held this position for twenty-nine years, and fulfilled its duties with distinguished ability. In 1816 he was appointed counselor of the Consistory. In 1831 he was compelled to ask for his discharge, and retired to Berlin, where he died September 17, 1834. All that he has left us of any value, besides the De Jobi antiquissimi cafminis Hebr. natura atque virtute (Leips. 1789), is a few philosophical treatises which he wrote during his rectorship at Pforte. — Herzog, Real- Encyklop. 6, 633 sq.; Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit. 2, 378.