Wilhelm Vischer

Wilhelm Eduard Vischer ( born April 30, 1895 in Davos, † November 27, 1988 in Montpellier, France) was a Swiss pastor and theologian for the subject of Old Testament, and song writer.

Life and work

His father Daniel Eberhard Vischer Koechlin (1865-1946) worked since 1893 as dean in Davos. The young William spent one and a half years in a children's home, a private home Blumhardt. His childhood and youth spent more Vischer in Basel.

Vischer in 1913 began the study of theology in Lausanne, more study places were Basel and Marburg. Vischer was musically talented: Many Psalms Vischer have been included in the hymnal of the Evangelical Reformed Churches. From 1918 to 1928 Vischer pastor was in the communities Rupperswil, Zurich and Tenniken.

In 1927 he delivered a lecture The Old Testament as God's word, which earned him notoriety and finally a call to the Bethel Theological School in Germany. There he soon withdrew the hate Nazi- minded circles, because he regarded the Old Testament as essential to the Christian faith and the Church, and this consistently Christological interpreted: If we reject the Old Testament, we can use the New Testament not as a saint keep writing. "If we keep it still, then it's been given by the separation from the Old Testament on a different meaning. The main word of the New Testament, namely, Jesus Christ ', then says no longer the same as before. " So Vischer in the lecture Is the Old Testament still in the bible of German Christians?, 1932. The conflict escalated and as Vischer Hitler called the " Balkanese " he had to resign from his teaching position in 1933.

In 1934 he became pastor of the German Evangelical church in Lugano. In the same year, the first volume of his work The witness to Christ in the Old Testament, the law appeared. Here he lays witness to Christ of the five books of Moses dar. 1942 appeared the second volume, subtitled The earlier prophets. Here are the books of Joshua through Kings are examined in terms of their witness to Christ.

Until 1947 he held a parish in Basel, he was ( until his retirement in 1965 ) professor of Old Testament in Montpellier.