Christian Friedrich August Dillmann

1823-1894. Lutheran biblical scholar and orientalist. Born at Illingen, he studied at Schönthal and Tübingen under Ewald* and Baur.* He became interested in the neglected field of Ethiopic studies, and worked on Ethiopic manuscripts in Paris, London, and Oxford, producing catalogues of the collections at the British Museum and the Bodleian. In 1848 he returned to Tübingen, where he became a professor in 1853. He later held chairs at Kiel (1854), Giessen (1864), and Berlin (1869). He produced a grammar and lexicon of Ethiopic, and editions of Ethiopic texts of the OT. In later life he wrote commentaries on some OT books, one of which (Genesis) was translated into English in 1897. More critical than Delitzsch,* he did not lose the friendship and admiration of that great commentator. Dillmann's Handbook of Old Testament Theology was published posthumously in 1895.