RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Oswy O'Toole
verse with its accents. This autograph is preserved in the Codex V(indobonensis), the parent of P(alatinus) and of the fragmentary Diiscissus). The manuscript F(risingensis) does not contribute to the textual determination, and this together with the few other codices still await investigation. Copies of the poem were sent by Otfrid to King Louis the German, Archbishop Liutbert of Mainz, Bishop Solomon of Constance, and the monks Hartmuat and Werinbraht of St. Gall, as is clear from the prefatory epistles in V and P. These epistles, moreover, serve to date the Liber evangeliorum between 863 and 871, for Liutbert became archbishop in 863, Solomon died in 871, and in the following year Hartmuat was made abbot of St. Gall. The text has been edited by J. Kelle (3 vols., Regensburg, 1856-81), P. Piper (2 vols., Paderborn and Freiburg (1878-84), and O. Erdmann (Halle, 1882). There is no demonstrable trace of Otfrid 's influence upon later writers, and his work remained unknown until about 1495, when Trithemius repeatedly alluded to him. The manuscript F was discovered by Beatus Rhenanus in 1531, and forty years later Flacius Illyricus and Pirminius Gassar edited P, which was then owned by Ulrich Fugger. Nor is it difficult to explain the small popularity of the Liber evangeliorum. Otfrid attached less interest to the acts of Christ than to their symbolic interpretation and the dogmatic questions derived from them. Concerned about orthodoxy and heavily equipped with theological science, he writes on the whole for the learned. His national enthusiasm and his pure human interest which finds expression in occasional touching similes can not hide his melancholy, his barren prolixity, and his jejune allegorizing. Esthetically, the work is a hybrid theology in clumsy verse, neither an epic nor a series of pious hymns; but historically it is an index of the clerical training of the Carolingian period, and linguistically it is almost the only source for a certain knowledge of Old High-German metrics, syntax, and orthography.
(E. Steinmeyer.)
Bibliography: F. T. Horning, Conjectures sur la vie et V education d'Otfrid, Strasburg, 1833; F. Rechenberg, Otfrids Evangelienbuch, Chemnitz, 1862; K. Lachmann, Kleinere Schriften, i. 358 sqq., Berlin, 1876; P. Schiitze, Beitrage zur Poetik Otfrids, Kiel, 1887; W. Wilmanns, Der altdeutsche Reimvers, Bonn, 1887; F. Saran, Ueber Vortragsweise und Zweck des Evangelienbuches Otfrids, Halle, 1896; A. L. Plumhoff, Beitrage zu den Quellen Otfrid's, Kiel, 1898; A. Schonbach, in Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum, vols, xxxviii.-xl.; Hauck, KD, ii. 768 sqq.
OTHNIEL: A Kenizzite prominent in the Israelite conquest of Palestine. According to Judges i. 11-16 (cf. Josh. xv. 15-19), he took the city of Kirjath-sepher (the later Debir), and received from his elder brother Caleb the hand of his daughter Achsah, the reward promised by Caleb to him who should reduce the place. Achsah, moreover, when leaving her father, secured from him the gift of certain wells. Since Caleb appears as the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite (Num. xxxii. 12; Josh. xiv. 6, 14), while Othniel is termed the son of Kenaz, he was probably merely a clan-brother of Caleb, both being sons of Kenaz in the sense that they were Kenizzites, these being originally Edomites (Gen, xxxvi, 9-11, 15, 42) who were later incorpo-
rated with Judah. The entire account of the taking of Kirjath-sepher is now frequently explained as a union of the Kenizzite clans Caleb, Othniel, and Achsah, made for the reduction of the city, or for its occupation by Caleb's daughter after being captured.
Othniel is again mentioned in Judges iii. 7-11, which states that after Joshua's death the Israelites were punished for their idolatry by bondage to Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. Thereupon God caused Othniel to conquer the oppressor, after which Israel had peace for forty years. That this Othniel is identical with the one mentioned above is evident. Soon after the conquest of the mountains of Judah, he must have been involved in fresh and greater wars. Little can be said concerning the historical character of this passage; but most likely the connection here is with a generally accepted but entirely faded tradition of a participation on his part in the wars between the Syrian dynasties and the Mesopotamian despots; and a liberation of Israel as a nation from a foreign yoke is out of the question. The hypothesis that the redactor makes Othniel a judge in his effort to assign a judge also to Judah (Wellhausen) can scarcely be entertained. Also, the inference that at the time of the conquests of the tribe of Kenaz or its clan, Othniel did not yet belong to Israel (W. Nowack, Hand-Kommentar, Richter-Ruth, p. 23, Gottingen, 1900) can scarcely be received as a basis of the foregoing assumption. Nothing can be asserted of the time of the confederation of Kenaz; and if Othniel conquered Debir for Israel, he must at least have belonged to Israel from that time. Rather may it be assumed that a tradition was extant concerning further wars after the deliverance of Debir, of which the later redactor of Judges knew little more than the fact. The schematic reference in Judges iii. 7-11 thus explains itself. The name of his adversary Chushan-rishathaim (" twice malignant villain ") explains itself on the same grounds as an artful construction; yet what name this construction, which need not be a pure invention, conceals is not known; and there is also a possibility of wars with Edom (Schrader, KAT, p. 219).
(R. Kittel.) Bibliography: Consult the relevant sections in the works on the history of Israel (under Ahab; Israel, History of), especially R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, ii. 81-82, Gotha, 1909; and the sections in the commentaries on Joshua and Judges dealing with the passages cited, particularly the works of Moore and Budde on Judges.
OTHO (OTTO), ANTON. See Antinomianism, II., 1, § 5.
O'TOOLE, LAURENCE, SAINT (LORCAN UA TUATHAIL): Archbishop of Dublin; b. in Leinster, Ireland, c. 1130; d. at Eu (Latin, Augium, 17 m. n.n.e. of Dieppe on the English Channel) Nov. 14, 1180. He was brought up and educated to the monastic life in the monastery of Glendalough, of which he became abbot at the age of twenty-five. In 1162 he was consecrated archbishop of Dublin. He was canonized by Honorius III. in 1226; and was the first Irishman to labor in his native land and receive canonization. Bibliography: The Vita by an anonymous author is in
Massingham, Florilegium insula! sanctorum, pp. 379-389,
Otte
Otto of Bamberg: