Gerhard von Rad

Gerhard von Rad (21 October 1901 – 31 October 1971) was a German academic, Old Testament scholar, Lutheran theologian, exegete, and professor at the University of Heidelberg.^[1]

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Gerhard von Rad
Born	(1901-10-21)21 October 1901 Nuremberg, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died	31 October 1971(1971-10-31) (aged 70) Heidelberg, West Germany
Alma mater	University of Erlangen University of Tübingen
Church	Confessing Church
Writings	The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (1938)[1] Genesis: A Commentary (1949-1953)[1] Old Testament Theology (1958-1960)[1]
Offices held	Professor of Old Testament, University of Heidelberg
Title	Reverend Doctor

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Gerhard von Rad was born in Nuremberg, Bavaria, to Lutheran parents.^[2] His family were part of the patrician class.^[3] He was educated at the University of Erlangen and further at the University of Tübingen.

In 1925, he became a curate in the Lutheran Landeskirche (i.e. the church in the federal state) of Bavaria.^[4] Later, he taught at the University of Erlangen in 1929 as tutor. In 1930 he was a privatdozent at the University of Leipzig.^[4] From 1934 to 1945 he served as a professor at the University of Jena and later at the University of Göttingen from 1945 to 1949.^[5] After that, he became Professor of Old Testament at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg and taught there until his death in 1971.^[4]

He was conferred honorary doctorates from the University of Lund, Sweden and the University of Wales, United Kingdom.^[6]

Oral tradition and the Pentateuch

Along with German biblical scholar Martin Noth, Gerhard von Rad applied form criticism, originated by Hermann Gunkel, to the documentary hypothesis.^[8]

Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism led to an "anti-Old Testament" bias among German scholars.^[9] Disturbed by this, von Rad turned to the study of the Old Testament and gradually started to bring back its message.^[10]

His lively papers achieved a renewal of interest and research in Old Testament studies.^[11] Along with Martin Noth, he applied research into the Pentateuch's oral tradition to the explanation of its origin.^[8]

In 1960, von Rad traveled to the United States where he was a visiting scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was greatly influential during this period. While at Princeton, he took on Richard A. Jensen as an understudy, who would also further his research and application.

Gerhard von Rad and his wife are buried in Heidelberg's "Handschuhsheim Cemetery". Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. On their gravestone is minimalist artwork depicting Jonah emerging from the great fish, an Old Testament symbol of resurrection.

• Victor Premasagar, a Cambridge tripos and past Principal of the Andhra Christian Theological College, Secunderabad, India in introducing critical methods and tools used in Biblical interpretation writes^[12] about von Rad as:

  .....a major contributor to Old Testament studies following the literary-critical tradition of Wellhausen and the form-critical and the traditio-historical approach of Hermann Gunkel as developed by Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth.

Prof. Premasagar concludes by saying that

the Bible for von Rad, in the final analysis, is neither history nor literature, but rather the confessions of a community.

• Henning Graf Reventlow of Ruhr University, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany in introducing a book^[13] by von Rad, makes the following observations:

  ...a number of von Rad's innovative papers prepared the way for the blossoming of Old Testament studies in Germany during the first decennia after the Second World War.

• Gerhard Hasel of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary of Andrews University, Michigan, United States in writing about the approaches to OT studies, mentions von Rad with the words....,^[14]

  A new methodological approach for OT theology, one that deserves to be put in a class by itself, is that of Gerhard von Rad. His OT theology needs to be understood as the theology of the historical and prophetic traditions.

• John H. Hayes, Professor at Candler School of Theology of the Emory University in Atlanta, United States writes about von Rad...^[15]

  In his theology, with its challenge of previous methodologies and with its new proposals, von Rad (1901-71) inaugurated a new epoch in the study of Old Testament theology. He argued against any organization of Old Testament theology along the lines of central concepts, pervasive topics, assumed structures of Israelite thought or world of faith, or systematic theological categories which had been characteristic, in one way or another, of all the theologies of the twentieth century since this was to impose an alien structure on the material.

• G. Henton Davies, past Principal, Regent's Park College, a Permanent Private Hall of Oxford University, Oxford, England, writes about von Rad thus^[16]

  Gerhard Von Rad has been a regular contributor to Old Testament studies since 1929, although his main works were published between 1947 and 1960. His major writings include his studies on Deuteronomy; his commentary on Genesis; his two volumes of Theology of the Old Testament and a representative selection of his essays, extending from 1931 through 1964, which were translated and published as The Problem of the Hexateuch and other Essays in 1966, though the bulk of these were written in the late 1940s.

• Book of Deuteronomy
• Biblical Criticism, Form Criticism
• Martin Noth
• Deuteronomistic History and Deuteronomist
• Dr. Klaus Koch, D.D., Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and History of the Ancient near East Religions at the University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
• Richard A. Jensen former apprentice of Gerhard von Rad
• Andhra Christian Theological College, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
• Books of Chronicles