Johann Friedrich Karl Keil or Carl Friedrich Keil (26 February 1807 – 5 May 1888) was a conservative German

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Old Testament commentator. Keil was appointed to the theological faculty of Dorpat in Estonia where he taught Bible, New Testament exegesis, and Oriental languages. In 1859 he was called to serve the Lutheran church in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. In 1887 he moved to Rödletz, where he died. Keil was a conservative critic who reacted strongly against the scientific biblical criticism of his day. He strongly supported Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. He maintained the validity of the historico-critical investigation of the Bible only if it proved the existence of New Testament revelation in the Scriptures. To this aim he edited (with Franz Delitzsch) his principal work, a commentary on the Bible, Biblischer Kommentar über das Alte Testament (5 vols., 1866–82; Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 5 vols., 1872–77). The work remains his most enduring contribution to biblical studies. He also published commentaries on Maccabees and New Testament literature.''Encyclopaedia Judaica''.

Biography

Keil was born at Lauterbach near Oelsnitz,

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxo ...

, and died at Rätz, Saxony. He is best known for his contributions to the Keil and Delitzsch commentaries, a ten-volume set written with Franz Delitzsch. Keil was a student of

Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg Ernst Wilhelm Theodor Herrmann Hengstenberg (20 October 1802, in Fröndenberg28 May 1869, in Berlin), was a German Lutheran churchman and neo-Lutheran theologian from an old and important Dortmund family. He was born at Fröndenberg, a Westpha ...

Works

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Old Testament Commentary

From the commentary compilations by Keil and Delitzsch: * Volume 1: Pentateuch * Volume 2: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel * Volume 3: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles * Volume 4: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job * Volume 5: Psalms * Volume 6: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs * Volume 7: Isaiah * Volume 8: Jeremiah, Lamentations * Volume 9: Ezekiel, Daniel * Volume 10: Minor Prophets

Biography

Works

Old Testament Commentary

References

Further reading