Balthasar Raith

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Balthasar Raith in the Professorengalerie in Tübingen

Balthasar Raith (born October 8, 1616 in Schorndorf , † December 5, 1683 in Tübingen ) was a Württemberg Evangelical Lutheran theologian and rector of the University of Tübingen .

Live and act

Balthasar Raith attended the Latin school in Schorndorf, studied during the Thirty Years' War in the monastery school of Bebenhausen and the Tübingen monastery theology and oriental language, became a master's degree , repetent and deacon in Tübingen, 1646 pastor and special superintendent in Derendingen , 1656 extraordinary professor of theology and superattendent of the princely scholarship in Tübingen. When Dr. theol. In 1660 he became a full professor and city pastor, in 1662 dean and senior superattendent of the Collegium illustrious .

He preferred to read on the Hebrew language and exegesis of the Old Testament, held disputations and sermon exercises, and made a special contribution to the practical training of young theologians. Among other things, he was rector of the University of Tübingen six times. He retired in 1680 because of increasing old age and died of a recurrent stroke at the age of 67, after his last loss of memory, eyesight, and speech.

His contemporaries praise his philological and theological erudition, his practical business acumen, but above all his excellent character, his sincere piety and charity. He was on friendly terms with various men who at that time, after the devastation of the Thirty Years' War, made the renewal of Christian popular and community life their task, in particular with Philipp Jacob Spener , to whom he dedicated his most important theological work, his defense of the Lutheran translation of the Bible "Vindiciae versionis s. bibliorum Germanicae D. Lutheri etc. “(Tübingen 1676). His 38 literary works are particularly biblical-theological, polemical and practical-edifying content.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Julius August Wagenmann:  Raith, Balthasar . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 190 f.
personal data
SURNAME Raith, Balthazar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian from Württemberg and rector of the University of Tübingen
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1616
PLACE OF BIRTH Schorndorf
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1683
Place of death Tübingen