Harald Riesenfeld

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Ernst Harald Riesenfeld (born February 8, 1913 in Freiburg im Breisgau , † July 9, 2008 in Uppsala ) was a Swedish theologian.

Life

Family and studies

Harald Riesenfeld was born to a German father and a Swedish mother. His father Ernst Hermann Riesenfeld was a professor in Freiburg, his mother's name was Hanna, née Johansson. His family moved back to Sweden during his youth.

He studied in Uppsala , where he obtained his master's degree in 1934 . He completed his subsequent theology studies in 1942 with a licentiate . He received his doctorate in 1947 with his study on Jésus transfiguré . In 1944/45 he was chairman of the student union in Uppsala.

Riesenfeld married Blenda Hedin (1913–2008) in 1944, a daughter of Sven Gustaf Hedin (university professor of physiological chemistry ) and Gunhild Sanne. The children are called Vendela, Magdalena, Johannes and Olaf.

Theological functions

Riesenfeld became an associate professor for the exegesis of the New Testament in Uppsala in 1953 , and remained so until 1979. He was dean of the theological faculty (1955-59). In 1979 he was a substitute professor for exegesis at the University of Tübingen . Riesenfeld belonged to the committee for the Swedish translation of the Bible (1972–81), which created the new translation called NT 81 .

He received an honorary doctorate in theology from the University of Paris in 1959 , and later from the University of St Andrews . He was a member of several scientific societies in Uppsala, the Norwegian Scientific Society in Trondheim and a corresponding member of the British Academy . 1968–1969 he was president of the SNTS ( Society for New Testament Studies ).

New Testament Research

In research on the history of form on the New Testament (especially with Martin Dibelius and Rudolf Bultmann ) there was the idea that the prehistory of the Gospels could be compared with the tradition of folk tales. With such a transfer process, transformations and changes are to be expected. Riesenfeld put forward an alternative thesis, which was greeted with skepticism by his colleagues, but also found followers and, through further arguments, exerted some influence in New Testament research: He said that Jesus - like the rabbis of his time - let his students learn a lot by heart . Therefore, one can expect the Gospels to be reliable accounts. A well-known student of Riesenfeld was Birger Gerhardsson . In Germany, their approaches were taken up and expanded by Rainer Riesner .

Old age and death

Riesenfeld was a high church Lutheran in the sense of Gunnar Rosendal and thus also an opponent of the ordination of women. When he realized that this position was no longer eligible for a majority in the Swedish Church , Riesenfeld converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1984 . Riesenfeld was buried in Bjursås (in Dalarna).

Works

  • (with Blenda Riesenfeld): Repertorium lexicographicum Graecum. A catalog of indexes and dictionaries to Greek authors . Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1954.
  • Tradition and editing in the Gospel of Mark . In: New Testament studies for Rudolf Bultmann (= supplements to the ZNW ; 21). Berlin 1954, pp. 157-164.
  • The Gospel Tradition and its Beginnings. A Study in the Limits of 'History of Form'. London 1957 (also in: Texts and Studies on the History of Early Christian Literature Vol. 73, Berlin 1959, pp. 43–65, and in: The Gospel Tradition , 1970, pp. 1–29).
  • The Gospel Tradition. Essays . Oxford, Philadelphia 1970 (a collection of earlier articles, partly translated from Swedish, French and German).
  • Unité et diversité dans le Nouveau Testament (= Lectio Divina; 98). Éditions du Cerf, Paris 1979.

literature

  • Riesenfeld, Ernst Harald . In: Ingeborg Burling, Elvan Sölvén (ed.): Vem är det. Svensk biografisk handbok 1957 . 23rd year PA Norstedt & Söners Förlag, 1956, ISSN  0347-3341 , p. 807-808 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • Roger Balducelli: Professor Riesenfeld on Synoptic Tradition. In: Catholic Biblical Quarterly. 22, 1960, pp. 416-421.
  • William David Davies: Reflections on a Scandinavian Approach to the Gospel Tradition. In: Festschrift for Oscar Cullmann . Leiden 1962, pp. 14-34.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Craig Blomberg : The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. VTR, Nuremberg 1998, p. 44.
  2. ↑ Marja-Liisa Swantz: Beyond the Forest Line. The Life and Letters of Bengt Sundkler . Gracewing Publishing, Leominster 2002, pp. 207 .
  3. ↑ In 1991 it was written that his transfer had taken place seven years earlier: http://archive.md/20130420050340/http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/23rd-august-1991/5/dead-sea- find-could-be-gospel-fragment
personal data
SURNAME Riesenfeld, Harald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riesenfeld, Ernst Harald (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 2008
Place of death Uppsala