Walter Bauer

Walter Bauer ( born August 8, 1877 in Königsberg ( Prussia), † November 17, 1960 in Göttingen ) was a German theologian who has made a name for itself in the New Testament research of the early church. On him the theory of proto- orthodox doctrine goes back. He is the creator of the Greek - German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature of the other, which is a multi- translated standard work to this day.

Life

The son of a high school teacher moved Bauer as a child with his family to Marburg, where he in 1895 at the high school Philippinum obtained his high school diploma. At the Philipps- University of Marburg, he began his studies of theology and joined the Corps in 1896 at the Hasso Nassovia. Later he studied in Berlin and Strasbourg. He habilitated in 1903 in Marburg and in 1913 became professor in Breslau and in 1916 in Göttingen, where he remained until his retirement in 1946. When in 1933 the Göttingen professors teaching a declaration of loyalty to Adolf Hitler, not signed Walter Bauer and the mathematician Emmy Noether. He campaigned for the pardon of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bauer was Lic theol., D., Dr. theol. h c. and Dr. phil. h c.

Work

Bauer researched early Christianity. His most famous work is probably orthodoxy and heresy in earliest Christianity (Tübingen 1934). In it he manages to prove that the orthodox doctrine of the early Church in no way represents the oldest school of thought. Above all, by writing discoveries in Egypt and Asia Minor, he was able to prove that the early Christian communities initially developed Gnostic ideas. Over time, but eventually the beliefs of the Roman church have prevailed, which denotes their developed doctrine than the original and the original doctrines have stigmatized later heretical deviations. This idea had only to enforce slow. Although it was published in 1934 in Tübingen, the contributions of German science in the postwar period were mostly ignored internationally. It was not until the 1971 publication in English. Today Bauer's view is widely shared by science, which therefore understands the Orthodox doctrine of the Church as the training proto- orthodox doctrine.

Another important contribution is in addition to the manufacturer commentary on the Johannine writings, especially the " Greek - German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature of the other ". It is now the world a standard work for the New Testament research and has been translated into other languages. The sixth edition has been thoroughly revised and published in 1988 by Barbara and Kurt Aland.

Works (selection)

• Empowered and minors in the apostle Paul. Dissertation, University of Marburg in 1902.
• The life of Jesus in the era of the New Testament Apocrypha. Scientific Book Club, Darmstadt 1967 ( reprint ed d Tübingen 1909).
• Gospel of John, 2nd Ed Mohr, Tübingen 1925 ( Guide to the New Testament, 6).
• The Catholic Epistles of the New Testament. Mohr, Tübingen 1910 ( Religionsgeschichtliche chapbooks for the German Christian presence / 1, 20).
• The Apostolic Fathers. Mohr, Tübingen, 1923.
• Georg Strecker (ed.): orthodoxy and heresy in earliest Christianity. 2nd edition JCB Mohr, Tübingen, 1964 ( contributions to historical theology; 10)
• Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland (ed.): Greek - German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature. 6th, completely revised edition. DeGruyter, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-11-010647-7 (former title Greek - German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature of the remaining (ed. Alfred Töpelmann ), 2nd edition (1928 ) of Erwin Preuschens. Complete Greek -German Concise Dictionary of the new Testament writings and other early Christian literature. 1, Giessen 1910).
• Textbook of New Testament theology. Second, revised edition. Mohr, Tübingen 1911 ( 2 vols, together with Adolf Jülich and Heinrich Holtzmann ).