Bickell, Gustav Wilhelm Hugo

Christian Hebraist and professor in the University of Vienna; born July 7, 1838, at Cassel. After graduating at Marburg, where he studied Semitic languages, he renounced Protestantism and entered the Roman Catholic Church, becoming two years later (1867) professor of Christian archeology and Semitic languages in the University of Innsbruck. In 1892 he was called to the University of Vienna. Bickell's, works include the following on Hebrew subjects: "Grundriss der Hebräischen Grammatik," in two vols., Leipsic, 1869-70 (English translation by S. I. Curtiss, Leipsic, 1877); "Dichtungen der Hebräer," in three vols., according to the versification of the original text, Innsbruck, 1882-84; "Kohelet's Untersuchung über den Wert des Daseins," ib., 1886; "Kalilag und Damnag," Leipsic, 1876; "Der Prediger," 1884; "Krit. Bearbeitung der Proverbien," in "W. Z. K. M." 1891; "Kritische Bearbeitung des Jobdialogs," in "W. Z. K. M." 1893, and "Das Buch Job" (metrical translation), 1894. His construction of Job and Kohelet is given in popular form in Dillon's "Sceptics of the Old Test." 1895. He has published also the "Carmina Nisibena" of Ephraem Syrus, 1866, and, from Syrian Fathers, "Ausgewählte Gedichte," 1872, and "Ausgewählte Schriften," 1874. For his critical studies of Ben Sira, see Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche," 1882, and "W. Z. K. M." vol. xiii.

Bibliography:

  * Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon, ii. 986.



T. I. Br.