Alfred Rahlfs

Alfred Rahlfs (* May 29, 1865 in Linden near Hanover, † April 8, 1935 in Göttingen ) was a Protestant theologian. He was one of the pioneers of modern text-critical study of the Septuagint.

Academic Career

Alfred Rahlfs was a student of Paul Anton de Lagarde, with whom he studied in Göttingen Theology and Oriental Studies. 1887 Rahlfs was phil in Göttingen Dr.. doctorate. Since 1901 he was Professor of Old Testament, first as an associate professor since 1919, as a full professor.

Göttingen Septuagint company

Groundbreaking Alfred Rahlfs worked in the field of exploration of the Septuagint, an ancient translation of the Old Testament into Greek. Rahlfs took on the pulse of his teacher de Lagarde and created a science-based, critical edition of the world's first translation of the Bible at all. One such issue not only corresponds to hardly be overestimated in the humanities and cultural-historical importance of the Septuagint, but is also of fundamental importance for the study of the Hebrew Old Testament.

To cope with the large scientific and logistic performance of such issue, Rahlfs founded in 1907 together with the Old Testament scholar Rudolf Smend the Göttingen Septuagint companies. Under the direction of Rahlfs (1908-1933) where the basis for the critical edition were laid. To order the collated on photographs and microfilms in Göttingen manuscripts led Rahlfs a Rahlfs the numbers that have become accepted as an international standard. In his lifetime the Septuagint company has the first three volumes of the critical edition publish ( Psalmi cum Odis, Ruth, Genesis). Meanwhile, about two-thirds of the volumes of the Göttingen editio maior are completed.

Publications

Focus of many publications by Alfred Rahlfs form Septuagint studies. Through his intimate knowledge of manuscript material have his essays to this day influence on textual criticism and the study of the textual history of the Septuagint.

Of great importance is the issue at hand, the Septuagint, the Rahlfs published in 1935 and was reprinted to this day over again. With this issue at hand Rahlfs was the fact that the appearance of the great Göttingen issue would take many decades ( and is still not complete ). The issue at hand of Rahlfs has become the standard work and can only be when all the volumes of the great Göttingen edition replaced by a newer work.

Swell

• Klaus- Gunther Wesseling: Rahlfs, Alfred. In: Biographic- bibliographic church encyclopedia ( BBKL ). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4, Sp 1267-1269. (Articles / Articles beginning possibly in the Internet Archive )

Expenditure

• Alfred Rahlfs (ed.): Septuagint, id est Vetus Testamentum Grace iuxta LXX interpretes; Stuttgart in 1935, numerous reprints, last Editio altera et quam recognovit emendavit Robert Hanhart; Stuttgart 2006
• Alfred Rahlfs list of Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament, the Septuagint for companies, Göttingen 1914.
• Göttingen Academy of Sciences ( ed.): Vetus Testamentum Graecum Academiae Scientiarum auctoritate Gottingensis editum; Göttingen 1931ff.
• Alfred Rahlfs (ed.): The book of Ruth Greek as a sample of a critical edition of the Septuagint hand. Privilege. Württ. Bible Institute, Stuttgart 1922.