Alfred Rahlfs

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Alfred Rahlfs (born May 29, 1865 in Linden near Hanover , † April 8, 1935 in Göttingen ) was a Protestant theologian . He was the most important representative of modern text-critical research into the Septuagint , the Greek translation of the Old Testament .

Live and act

Alfred Rahlfs was a student of Paul Anton de Lagarde , with whom he studied theology and oriental studies in Göttingen . In 1887 Rahlfs was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD . From 1901 he was professor of the Old Testament there , initially as an associate professor and from 1919 as a full professor. In 1918 he was elected a full member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

At the suggestion of his teacher de Lagarde, Rahlfs began to create the first scientifically sound, critical edition of the Septuagint at all. In order to be able to cope with the great scientific and logistical achievement of such an edition, he founded the Göttingen Septuagint company in 1907 together with the Old Testament scholar Rudolf Smend . Under the direction of Rahlfs (1908–1934) the foundations for the critical edition were laid there. To organize the manuscripts collected on photographs and microfilms in Göttingen, Rahlfs introduced the Rahlfs numbers , which have become the international standard.

During his lifetime, the Septuagint company was able to publish the first three volumes of the critical edition ( Psalmi cum Odis, Ruth, Genesis ). The Göttingen Septuaginta company should be completed by 2015.

Such an edition not only corresponds to the intellectual and cultural historical significance of the Septuagint, which can hardly be overestimated, but is also of fundamental importance for research into the original Hebrew text .

Fonts

Studies on the Septuagint are the focus of the numerous publications by Alfred Rahlfs. Thanks to his intimate knowledge of the manuscript material, his essays have influenced textual criticism and research into the textual history of the Septuagint to this day.

The hand edition of the Septuagint, which Rahlfs published in 1935 and which has been reprinted over and over again, is of great importance. With this hand edition, Rahlfs took account of the fact that the publication of the great Göttingen edition would take many decades (and has not yet been completed). The manual edition by Rahlfs has become the standard work and can only be replaced by a successor work once all volumes of the large Göttingen edition are available.

  • Alfred Rahlfs: The Berlin manuscript of the Sahidic psalter . Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Philological-Historical Class New Series - Volume 004,4, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, reprint of the 1901 edition, ISBN 978-3-525-82012-4 .
  • Alfred Rahlfs: Directory of the Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament, compiled for the Septuagint company (Communications of the Septuagint Company Volume 2) , Göttingen 1914. ( online )
  • Alfred Rahlfs (ed.): The book of Ruth in Greek as a sample of a critical hand edition of the Septuagint. Privilege. Württemberg Bible Institute, Stuttgart 1922.
  • Göttingen Academy of Sciences (Ed.): Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1931ff.
  • Alfred Rahlfs (Ed.): Septuaginta, id est Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX interpretes ; Stuttgart 1935, numerous new editions, most recently Editio altera quam recognovit et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart 2006. Septuagint edition
  • Alfred Rahlfs: Septuagint Studies, Vol. 1-3. Increased by an article from the estate. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965.
  • Alfred Rahlfs, Detlef Fraenkel: Directory of the Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament. Volume I, 1: The tradition up to the 8th century (= Septuagint. Vetus Testamentum Graecum. Supplementum ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-53447-7

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 194.
personal data
SURNAME Rahlfs, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Linden trees
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1935
Place of death Goettingen