GICHTEL, JOHANN GEORG (1638-1710), German mystic, was born at
Regensburg, where his father was a member of senate, on the 14th of
March 1638. Having acquired at school an acquaintance with Greek,
Hebrew, Syriac and even Arabic, he proceeded to Strassburg to study
theology; but finding the theological prelections of J. S. Schmidt and
P. J. Spener distasteful, he entered the faculty of law. He was admitted
an advocate, first at Spires, and then at Regensburg; but having become
acquainted with the baron Justinianus von Weltz (1621-1668), a Hungarian
nobleman who cherished schemes for the reunion of Christendom and the
conversion of the world, and having himself become acquainted with
another world in dreams and visions, he abandoned all interest in his
profession, and became an energetic promoter of the "_Christerbauliche
Jesusgesellschaft_," or Christian Edification Society of Jesus. The
movement in its beginnings provoked at least no active hostility; but
when Gichtel began to attack the teaching of the Lutheran clergy and
church, especially upon the fundamental doctrine of justification by
faith, he exposed himself to a prosecution which resulted in sentence of
banishment and confiscation (1665). After many months of wandering and
occasionally romantic adventure, he reached Holland in January 1667, and
settled at Zwolle, where he co-operated with Friedrich Breckling
(1629-1711), who shared his views and aspirations. Having become
involved in the troubles of this friend, Gichtel, after a period of
imprisonment, was banished for a term of years from Zwolle, but finally
in 1668 found a home in Amsterdam, where he made the acquaintance of
Antoinette Bourignon (1616-1680), and in a state of poverty (which,
however, never became destitution) lived out his strange life of visions
and day-dreams, of prophecy and prayer. He became an ardent disciple of
Jakob Boehme, whose works he published in 1682 (Amsterdam, 2 vols.); but
before the time of his death, on the 21st of January 1710, he had
attracted to himself a small band of followers known as Gichtelians or
Brethren of the Angels, who propagated certain views at which he had
arrived independently of Boehme. Seeking ever to hear the authoritative
voice of God within them, and endeavouring to attain to a life
altogether free from carnal desires, like that of "the angels in heaven,
who neither marry nor are given in marriage," they claimed to exercise a
priesthood "after the order of Melchizedek," appeasing the wrath of God,
and ransoming the souls of the lost by sufferings endured vicariously
after the example of Christ. While, however, Boehme "desired to remain a
faithful son of the Church," the Gichtelians became Separatists (cf. J.
A. Dorner, _History of Protestant Theology_, ii. p. 185).
Gichtel's correspondence was published without his knowledge by
Gottfried Arnold, a disciple, in 1701 (2 vols.), and again in 1708 (3
vols.). It has been frequently reprinted under the title _Theosophia
practica_. The seventh volume of the Berlin edition (1768) contains a
notice of Gichtel's life. See also G. C. A. von Harless, _Jakob Bohme
und die Alchimisten_ (1870, 2nd ed. 1882); article in _Allgemeine
deutsche Biographie_.
GIDDINGS, JOSHUA REED (1795-1864), American statesman, prominent in the
anti-slavery conflict, was born at Tioga Point, now Athens, Bradford
county, Pennsylvania, on the 6th of October 1795. In 1806 his parents
removed to Ashtabula county, Ohio, then sparsely settled and almost a
wilderness. The son worked on his father's farm, and, though he received
no systematic education, devoted much time to study and reading. For
several years after 1814 he was a school teacher, but in February 1821
he was admitted to the Ohio bar and soon obtained a large practice,
particularly in criminal cases. From 1831 to 1837 he was in partnership
with Benjamin F. Wade. He served in the lower house of the state
legislature in 1826-1828, and from December 1838 until March 1859 was a
member of the national House of Representatives, first as a Whig, then
as a Free-soiler, and finally as a Republican. Recognizing that slavery
was a state institution, with which the Federal government had no
authority to interfere, he contended that slavery could only exist by a
specific state enactment, that therefore slavery in the District of
Columbia and in the Territories was unlawful and should be abolished,
that the coastwise slave-trade in vessels flying the national flag, like
the international slave-trade, should be rigidly suppressed, and that
Congress had no power to pass any act which in any way could be
construed as a recognition of slavery as a national institution. His
attitude in the so-called "Creole Case" attracted particular attention.
In 1841 some slaves who were being carried in the brig "Creole" from
Hampton Roads, Virginia, to New Orleans, revolted, killed the captain,
gained possession of the vessel, and soon afterwards entered the British
port of Nassau. Thereupon, according to British law, they became free.
The minority who had taken an active part in the revolt were arrested on
a charge of murder, and the others were liberated. Efforts were made by
the United States government to recover the slaves, Daniel Webster, then
secretary of state, asserting that on an American ship they were under
the jurisdiction of the United States and that they were legally
property. On the 21st of March 1842, before the case was settled,
Giddings introduced in the House of Representatives a series of
resolutions, in which he asserted that "in resuming their natural rights
of personal liberty" the slaves "violated no law of the United States."
For offering these resolutions Giddings was attacked with rancour, and
was formally censured by the House. Thereupon he resigned, appealed to
his constituents, and was immediately re-elected by a large majority. In
1859 he was not renominated, and retired from Congress after a
continuous service of more than twenty years. From 1861 until his death,
at Montreal, on the 27th of May 1864, he was U.S. consul-general in
Canada. Giddings published a series of political essays signed
"Pacificus" (1843); _Speeches in Congress_ (1853); _The Exiles of
Florida_ (1858); and a _History of the Rebellion: Its Authors and
Causes_ (1864).
See _The Life of Joshua R. Giddings_ (Chicago, 1892), by his
son-in-law, George Washington Julian (1817-1899), a Free-soil leader
and a representative in Congress in 1849-1851, a Republican
representative in Congress in 1861-1871, a Liberal Republican in the
campaign of 1872, and afterwards a Democrat.
GIDEON (in Hebrew, perhaps "hewer" or "warrior"), liberator, reformer
and "judge" of Israel, was the son of Joash, of the Manassite clan of
Abiezer, and had his home at Ophrah near Shechem. His name occurs in
Heb. xi. 32, in a list of those who became heroes by faith; but, except
in Judges vi.-viii., is not to be met with elsewhere in the Old
Testament. He lived at a time when the nomad tribes of the south and
east made inroads upon Israel, destroying all that they could not carry
away. Two accounts of his deeds are preserved (see JUDGES). According to
one (Judges vi. 11-24) Yahweh appeared under the holy tree which was in
the possession of Joash and summoned Gideon to undertake, in dependence
on supernatural direction and help, the work of liberating his country
from its long oppression, and, in token that he accepted the mission, he
erected in Ophrah an altar which he called "Yahweh-Shalom" (Yahweh is
peace). According to another account (vi. 25-32) Gideon was a great
reformer who was commanded by Yahweh to destroy the altar of Baal
belonging to his father and the _asherah_ or sacred post by its side.
The townsmen discovered the sacrilege and demanded his death. His
father, who, as guardian of the sacred place, was priest of Baal,
enjoined the men not to take up Baal's quarrel, for "if Baal be a god,
let him contend (_rib_) for himself." Hence Gideon received the name
Jerubbaal.[1] From this latter name appearing regularly in the older
narrative (cf. ix.), and from the varying usage in vi.-viii., it has
been held that stories of two distinct heroes (Gideon and Jerubbaal)
have been fused in the complicated account which follows.[2]
The great gathering of the Midianites and their allies on the north side
of the plain of Jezreel; the general muster first of Abiezer, then of
all Manasseh, and lastly of the neighbouring tribes of Asher, Zebulun
and Naphtali; the signs by which the wavering faith of Gideon was
steadied; the methods by which an unwieldy mob was reduced to a small
but trusty band of energetic and determined men; and the stratagem by
which the vast army of Midian was surprised and routed by the handful of
Israelites descending from "above Endor," are indicated fully in the
narratives, and need not be detailed here. The difficulties in the
account of the subsequent flight of the Midianites appear to have arisen
from the composite character of the narratives, and there are signs that
in one of them Gideon was accompanied only by his own clansmen (vi. 34).
So, when the Midianites are put to flight, according to one
representation, the Ephraimites are called out to intercept them, and
the two chiefs, Oreb ("raven") and Zeeb ("wolf"), in making for the
fords of the Jordan, are slain at "the raven's rock" and "the wolf's
press" respectively. As the sequel of this we are told that the
Ephraimites quarrelled with Gideon because their assistance had not been
invoked earlier, and their anger was only appeased by his tactful reply
(viii. 1-3; contrast xii. 1-6). The other narrative speaks of the
pursuit of the Midianite chiefs Zebah and Zalmunna[3] across the
northern end of Jordan, past Succoth and Penuel to the unidentified
place Karkor. Having taken relentless vengeance on the men of Penuel and
Succoth, who had shown a timid neutrality when the patriotic struggle
was at its crisis, Gideon puts the two chiefs to death to avenge his
brothers whom they had killed at Tabor.[4] The overthrow of Midian (cf.
Is. ix. 4, x. 26; Ps. lxxxiii. 9-12) induced "Israel" to offer Gideon
the kingdom. It was refused--out of religious scruples (viii. 22 seq.;
cf. 1 Sam. viii. 7, x. 19, xii. 12, 17, 19), and the ephod idol which he
set up at Ophrah in commemoration of the victory was regarded by a later
editor (v. 27) as a cause of apostasy to the people and a snare to
Gideon and his house; see, however, Ephod. Gideon's achievements would
naturally give him a more than merely local authority, and after his
death the attempt was made by one of his sons to set himself up as chief
(see ABIMELECH).
See further JEWS, section 1; and the literature to the book of Judges.
(S. A. C.)