Hans Walter Wolff

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Hans Walter Wolff (born December 17, 1911 in Barmen , today Wuppertal , † October 22, 1993 in Heidelberg ) was a German Protestant theologian , pastor and Old Testament scholar. From 1959 to 1967 he was full professor of the Old Testament at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz , and from 1967 to 1978 he was professor of the Old Testament at the Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg . In 1973 his Anthropology of the Old Testament came out, which was the first comprehensive treatise on the subject and became a standard theological work.

Life

The son of a businessman attended the secondary school in Barmer , where he graduated from high school in the spring of 1931. He studied Protestant theology initially at the Bethel Church University , then at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn . In the spring of 1935 he finally passed the first theological exam at the Confessional Synod in the Rhineland and was initially sent to Münster as vicar , but then to accompany the students at the Church of Wuppertal University . From April 1937 he was assistant preacher in Solingen - Wald , in 1938 Wolff passed the Second Theological Examination. Despite being called up for military service, he was able to attend the theological faculty in Halle in 1942 with the scripture Isaiah 53 in early Christianity: The story of prophecy "See, my servant wins" up to Justin as Lic. Theol. PhD. From 1946 to 1949 Wolff was pastor of the fourth district of the Protestant community in Solingen-Wald, he was also a lecturer at the Church University of Wuppertal, where he was appointed to the chair for the Old Testament in 1952 and also worked as an Ephorus . In 1959 he became professor for the Old Testament at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz . In 1967, Hans Walter Wolff accepted a call to the theological faculty of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, where he retired in 1978.

Teaching

The research and teaching activities of Hans Walter Wolff focused on the prophet books as well as studies on ethics and anthropology. His Anthropology of the Old Testament , edited in 1973 and the first comprehensive treatise on the subject, is still considered a standard work today, which received great attention among theologians and has been published several times.

With Martin Noth and Hans-Joachim Kraus , he was one of the editors of the Biblical Commentary Old Testament series , for which he edited, among other things, partial volumes of the Dodecapropheton . He understood his scientific work as a service to exegesis and preaching .

For people image presented of the Old Testament firmly Wolff that the Yahwist and the Priestly story of creation in three main points agreed:

  • Humans belong in the immediate vicinity of animals.
  • At the same time, God's special devotion to humans clearly distinguishes him from animals.
  • Only man and woman together represented a whole and useful person.

The designation of God's image for man defines a relationship of domination, but it also has limits:

  • The subjugation of the world should not lead to the endangerment of man as it assumes threatening proportions in environmental pollution and destruction; Man's rule over man falsifies the image of God.
  • The subjugation of the world should not lead to humans being ruled by a myth of technology, which produces what is technically feasible for the sake of its feasibility and thus subjects people to technical-economic constraints.

Honors

Wolff was honored in 1981 with the Sexau Community Prize for Theology .

Private

Hans Walter Wolff was first married to Annemarie Halstenbach, a daughter of the Barmer factory owner Willy Halstenbach, who after the Second World War tried very hard to re-establish the church university in Wuppertal. This marriage resulted in seven children (including the philosopher Michael Wolff and the musicologist Christoph Wolff ). After his wife's death, Wolff married her cousin Hilderuth Halstenbach.

Fonts (selection)

  • The quote in the prophet's saying: a study on the prophetic mode of preaching , Supplement to Evangelical Theology 4, 1937
  • Isaiah 53 in early Christianity: the story of the prophecy "See, my servant wins" up to Justin , dissertation, Halle 1942 (new edition with the introduction by Peter Stuhlmacher : Isaiah 53 in early Christianity , Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 1984)
  • Haggai: An Interpretation , Biblical Studies 1, 1951
  • From the life of God's people: three Bible studies based on the Book of Moses and a sermon from the Stuttgart Kirchentag 1952 , Biblical Studies 4, 1952
  • A hand's breadth of earth: small Palestine diary , 1955
  • with Karl Elliger , Martin Noth , Siegfried Herrmann , Thomas Krüger and Thomas Willi : Biblical Commentary. Old Testament , Neukirchener Theologie series, Verlag der Buchhandlung des Erziehungsverein, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1955–2009
    • Haggai , Neukirchener Verlagsgesellschaft , Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1991
    • with Jörg Jeremias : Studies on Jonabuch , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2003
    • with Siegfried Herrmann and Martin Noth: Micha , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982 and 2004
    • Dodecapropheton 1: Hosea , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1965 and 2004
    • Dodecapropheton 2: Joel and Amos Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1969 and 2004
    • Dodecapropheton 3: Obadja and Jona , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1977 and 2004
  • The Hour of Amos: Prophecy and Protest , 1969
  • Bible: The Old Testament, An Introduction to Its Writings and Methods of Researching them , Subjects of Theology 7, 1970
  • Human: four speeches about the heart, the day of rest, marriage and death in the Old Testament , Kaiser Traktate, Munich 1971
  • Anthropology of the Old Testament , Gütersloh / Munich 1973 (many editions: 1989, ISBN 978-3-459-01555-9 ; published by Bernd Janowski in 2010, ISBN 978-3-579-08096-3 )
  • The Whore's Wedding , 1979
  • ... like a torch. Sermons from three decades , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1980.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Kreuzer: Hans Walter Wolff, Wuppertal 1994 and 2002
  2. ^ Andreas Vonach : Hans Walter Wolff: Anthropology of the Old Testament. (PDF file) Review. In: Biblical Book Show. Katholisches Bibelwerk Stuttgart, 2012, accessed on January 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Jürgen Kegler: Hans Walter Wolff: Exegese for Sermon and Present , Heidelberg March 1, 2017
  4. ↑ Hans Walter Wolff: The image of man in the Old Testament , 2004
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Hans Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and Old Testament scholar
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Barmen
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1993
Place of death Heidelberg