Johannes Peder Ejler Pedersen

Johannes Peder Ejler Pedersen (born Nov. 7, 1883, Illebølle, Den.—died Dec. 12, 1977, Copenhagen) was a Danish Old Testament scholar and Semitic philologist, important for his conception of Israelite culture and modes of thought based on religio-historical and sociological studies.

Pedersen matriculated at the University of Copenhagen in 1902 as a student of divinity. The Old Testament in particular aroused his interest, and he studied Semitic languages under Frants Buhl. A graduate in divinity (1908), he went abroad for three years, studying under Heinrich Zimmern, August Fischer, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and Ignaz Goldziher. He was appointed docent in Old Testament exegesis at Copenhagen (1916–22) and then professor of Semitic philology (1922–50) in succession to Buhl. His doctoral thesis (1912) showed him to be an eminent philologist with an exceptional ability to enter into the spirit of the ancient Oriental trains of thought. These qualities are even more pronounced in his chief work, Israel: Its Life and Culture, in four volumes (1920–34; Eng. trans. 1926–40). These studies of ancient Israel marked a new departure in Scandinavian Old Testament research. Pedersen’s conception of the importance of the cult led in many aspects to a break with Julius Wellhausen and his school, especially in his estimation of the narratives and the laws in the Pentateuch as sources for the history of Israel.