​HUG, JOHANN LEONHARD (1765-1846), German Roman Catholic theologian, was born at Constance on the rst of June 1765. In 1783 he entered the university of Freiburg, where he became a pupil in the seminary for the training of priests, and soon distinguished himself in classical and Oriental philology as well as in biblical exegesis and criticism. In 1787 he became superintendent of studies i11 the seminary, and held this appointment until the breaking up of the establishment in 1790. In the following year he was called to the Freiburg chair of Oriental languages and Old Testament exegesis; to the duties of this post were added in 1793 those of the professorship of New Testament exegesis. Declining calls to Breslau, Tubingen, and thrice to Bonn, Hug continued at Freiburg for upwards of thirty years, taking an occasional literary tour to Munich. Paris or Italy In 1827 he resigned some of his professorial work, but continued in active duty until in the autumn of 1845 he was seized vsith a painful illness, which proved fatal on the 11th of March 1846.

Hug's earliest publication was the first instalment of his Eznleitung; in It he argued with much acuteness against ]. G. Eichhorn in favour of the “borrowing hypothesis” of the origin of the syn optical gospels, maintaining the priority of Matthew, the present Greek tcxt having been the original. His subsequent orks were dissertations on the origin of alphabetical writing (D1e Erfindung der Buchstabenschrtft, 1801), on the antiquity of the Codex Vatzcanus (1810), and on ancient mythology (Uber den Mythos der alten Volker, 1812), a new interpretation of the Song of Solomon (Das hohe Lred rn ezner noch unversuchten Deutung, 1813), to the effect that the lover represents King Hezekiah, while by his beloved is intended the remnant left in Israel after the deportation of the ten tubes; and treatises on the indissoluble character of the matrimonial bond (De conjugtz chrzsttanz vznculo zndzssolubzlz cafnrnentatzo exegeizca, 1816) and on the Alexandrian version of the Pentateuch (1818) His Etnleztung tn dte échrtften des Neuen Testaments, undoubtedly his most important work, was completed 1n 1808 (fourth German edition, 1847; English translations by D. G. Wait, London, 1827, and by Fosdick, New York, 1836; French partial translation by ] E Cellerier, Geneva, ISZS). It IS specially valuable in the portion relating to the history of the text (which up to the middle of the 3rd century he holds to have been current only IH a common edition (nom) Zxéoms), of which1 recension's were afterwards made by Hesychius, an Egyptian bishop, by Lucian of Antioch, and by Origen) and in 1ts discussion of the ancient versions. The author's intelligence and acuteness are more completely hampered by doctrinal presuppositions when he comes to treat questions relating to the istory of the individual books of the New Testament canon. From 1839 to his death Hug was a regular and important contributor to the F/etburger Zeztschrzft fur kathol. Theologze

See A Maier, Gedachtnzsrede auf J. L. Hug (1847), K. Werner, Geschichte der kalh. Theol. tn Deutschland, 527-533 (1866).