Wilhelm Rudolph (theologian)

Wilhelm Rudolph (* July 12, 1891 in Weikersheim ; † March 27, 1987 in Münster ) was a Protestant theologian and Old Testament scholar .

Life

During his studies in Tübingen, he was a member of the 1909 Schwarzenburg Bund - connection Nicaria . Wilhelm Rudolph attended the Maulbronn and Blaubeuren seminars and the Tübinger Stift , where he had been a repetitionist since 1919 . He came to Old Testament science through oriental studies . As a student of Seybold he dealt with the oriental languages, as a student of Garbe with Sanskrit . In the summer semester of 1921 he received a teaching assignment for Arabic and Syriac as a representative of the Chair for Oriental Studies.

After completing his studies, Rudolph initially worked in the Württemberg church service. He received his PhD in 1920 in Tübingen Dr. phil. His dissertation deals with the Koran's dependence on Judaism and Christianity. At Easter 1922 he was appointed associate professor for the Old Testament at the Protestant theological faculty in Tübingen. In 1929 he turned down an honorable call to Jerusalem as director of the German Evangelical Institute for Classical Studies in the Holy Land. In the same year he was appointed full professor in Tübingen.

In 1930 he followed a call to the Old Testament ordinariate in Giessen . In the same year he was awarded D. theol in Tübingen . PhD. He was a member of the Giessen Theological Faculty until it was dissolved in 1946. After 1946 he held a teaching position at the Marburg Theological Faculty and taught as a guest at the Church University in Berlin. In 1949 he was appointed full professor at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . There he was elected rector of the university for 1958/59.

Rudolph was one of the few who was made honorary membership by the Society of Biblical Literature . In 1971 he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his great services in rebuilding the university and science in the post-war years.

Wilhelm Rudolph's importance lies in his extensive commentary activities - his comments on the books of the AT have become standard works for scholars and practitioners - and in his editorial work as co-editor of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia .

Publications (excerpt)

• The Quoran's dependence on Judaism and Christianity. Stuttgart 1922, online at archive.org
• People and State in the Old Testament. In: People. Country. Church. A course of the theological faculty in Giessen. Publishing house by Alfred Töpelmann, Giessen 1933.
• The "Elohist" from Exodus to Joshua. Supplements to the journal for Old Testament science 68. Berlin 1938
• The lamentations translated and explained. KAT, ed. By E. Sellin, XVI, 3. Leipzig 1939
• The Book of Ruth translated and explained. KAT, ed. By E. Sellin, XVI, 2. Leipzig 1939
• Jeremiah. HAT, ed. By O. Eissfeldt, I, 21 Tübingen 1947
• Ezra and Nehemiah including 3rd Ezra. HAS ed. By O. Eissfeldt, I, 20 Tübingen 1949
• Moses Mendelssohn in his Yiddish letters. Hessian folklore sheets. Vol. 41 Giessen 1950
• Chronicle Books. HAT, ed. By O. Eissfeldt, I, 21 Tübingen 1955

literature

• Kuschke, Arnulf (ed.). Exile and homecoming. Contributions to history and theology in the 6th and 5th centuries BC Chr. Wilhelm Rudolph on his 70th birthday presented by colleagues, friends and students. Tübingen 1961 (in it: Bibliography Wilhelm Rudolph, compiled by Richard Hentschke)
• Rudolf Smend : German Old Testament Students in Three Centuries . Göttingen 1989. ISBN 3-525-53584-8
• Martin Greschat : The Evangelical Theological Faculty in Gießen in the time of National Socialism (1933-1945) , in: B. Jendorff / C. Mayer / G. Schmalenberg (ed.), Theology in the Context of the History of the Alma Mater Ludoviciana, Giessen 1983, pp. 139–166.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Goebel (ed.): Directory of members of the Schwarzburgbund. 8th edition, Frankfurt am Main 1930, p. 122 No. 2613.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Rudolph in the catalog of the German National Library
• Klaus Koenen:  Rudolph, Wilhelm. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Wilhelm Klemm	Rector of the University of Münster 1958–1959	Andreas Predöhl