About the history of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum

Text by Roland Deines. Translation by Kathrin Väterlein. This page is still under construction.

Prehistory

Johann Jakob Wettstein's (1693-1754) “Novum Testamentum Graece” was published in two volumes in 1751/52. In addition to the text-critical apparatus, the work contains another, far more extensive, collection of parallel passages from classical, Jewish and ecclesiastical literature. Wettstein systematically worked through and analyzed more than 175 ancient authors over a period of more than 40 years. The most important and most effective representative of the so-called “Observations” literature of the 18th century.

His methodical insights are still impressive today. In his treatise “On the Interpretation of the New Testament”, he wrote about the significance and meaning of the parallels he provided:

The meaning of the words or phrases we take first from other passages of the same writer, then from the other sacred writings, as well as from the translation of the seventy translators, further from writers who lived about the same time and place, finally from common usage.

The exegetical work thus progresses in the manner of concentric circles from the most obvious to the most distant. The high value he places on the LXX is striking. He justifies this by saying,

that all the authors of the New Testament studied the Greek translation of the Old Testament day and night.

As a second (and by no means self-evident at the time) insight, he points out that the sacred writers did not invent a new language, but used the one they had learned from their contemporaries, which is why the contemporary authors and their use of language must also be consulted for understanding and not that of the writers of the Middle Ages ... and much less the scholastic and new theologians.

Wettstein's methodological insights have lost none of their relevance to this day:

If you want to fully understand the books of the New Testament, put yourself in the shoes of those to whom they were first given to read by the apostles. Put yourself in the mind of the time and place where they were first read. See to it, as far as possible, that you recognize the manners, customs, habits, opinions, traditional ideas, proverbs, imagery, daily expressions of those men, and the way in which they tried to convince others or give credence to reasonings. Be especially mindful of this where you turn to a place ...

The Beginnings (1914–1922)

In 1914, C. F. Georg Heinrici (1844-1915), a New Testament scholar in Leipzig, submitted plans for a fundamental revision of Wettstein's work to his colleagues Ernst von Dobschütz (Halle) and Hans Lietzmann (Jena). The name “Corpus Hellenisticum” appears in the documents. The work is planned in two stages. First, all relevant authors and text corpora were to be individually evaluated for the NT in a series of monographs (in the sense of the classical Observationes literature), and then the results were to be incorporated into an overall commentary.

Heinrici died in 1915, after the first employees had been recruited, including:

• Adolf Deißmann (er hatte 1891/92 bei Heinrici, damals noch in Marburg, promoviert),
• Ernst von Dobschütz,
• Hans Lietzmann,
• Hans Windisch,
• Walter Bauer,
• Wilhelm Heitmüller,
• Martin Dibelius,
• Carl Clemen,
• Gerhard Kittel,
• Anton Fridrichsen (Uppsala),
• Henry J. Cadbury (England)

In 1916, Johannes Leipoldt, Heinrici's successor in Leipzig, wants to take over the project. Some of the above-mentioned employees withdrew their agreement to work on the project. In December 1916, Leipoldt and von Dobschütz decided on the content of the Corpus Hellenisticum: the entire ancient material, starting with the classics, archaeology, pseudepigrapha, rabbinica and the religious-historical material handed down by the Church Fathers was to be processed. In addition to the monographic processing of the material (“Arbeiten zur Religionsgeschichte des Urchristentums”), the material is to be recorded on index cards, which will ultimately lead to a “new edition of the New Testament with commentary” (von Dobschütz). Heinrici himself designed and presented the model of such an index card.

In 1921, plans for an English project entitled “New Wetstein” (W. O. Oesterley and F. H. Colson) became known in Germany. Von Dobschütz made contact and arrangements were made to avoid duplication. Collections on Plutarch, Seneca, Josephus, Vettius Valens, Stobaeus, Corpus Hermeticum and Magical Papyri were already available from the English side. The initial idea was that the English side would work on the (pagan) Hellenistic area, the German side on the Jewish-Hellenistic area. But then the English offered to hand over the project.

In 1922, the English material was sent to Germany and at the same time the objective was redefined according to the English model: a “Wettstein redivivus” was now the goal (excluding the Rabbinica, as the first volume of Billerbeck's commentary appeared in 1922), monographs on individual authors were only to appear alongside as necessary. Ernst von Dobschütz became the director of the company and reported on it in that year's ZNW: “Der Plan eines Neuen Wettstein” (p. 146-148).

Intensive work on the project (1925-1935)

The actual work began in 1925, with a total of 34 theologians and 21 classical scholars participating over the next few years. In the summer of 1925 alone, around 38,000 index cards were created in this way; only later were the relevant academic publications used to evaluate the material. Dobschütz mentions the distinction between word parallels, style parallels and subject parallels as the first rough classification.

In 1928, at the VI New Testament Conference in Eisenach, Hans Windisch recommended dividing the Corpus Hellenisticum into a Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum (CJH) and a Corpus Pagano Hellenisticum (CPH) and publishing each separately.

In 1929, Beck-Verlag agreed to publish the work. On the basis of a proof (for the Prologue to St. John) produced in 1930, the volume was estimated at a total of 5 volumes (960 pages for CJH and 3,840 pages for CPH). In total, von Dobschütz expected 114,000-190,000 cards to be returned by the employees. However, these expectations were not met. Most of them only sent back a few cards, many of which were inadequately processed. Auxiliary staff in Halle sort and expand the collection.

In 1932, von Dobschütz considered the first part for Mt 1-20 to be “almost ready for printing”. However, no further funding is approved.

Ernst von Dobschütz dies on May 20, 1934. This marks the end of the first successful phase of work on the CH.

In 1935, the 54-year-old Hans Windisch (born in Leipzig in 1881) is appointed from Kiel to Halle as von Dobschütz's successor. In a short note in the ZNW (Zum Corpus Hellenisticum, ZNW 34, 1935, 124f) he reports on the state of affairs and asks for further collaborators. He also renews contact with the Beck publishing house, which in the meantime makes its promise to publish the work contingent on financial support. But Hans Windisch dies on November 8, 1935. Despite this, according to Manfred Lang, “his preliminary work on Philo is the most extensive and the most useful of all ... and has been consulted throughout the ‘Neuer Wettstein’ since the volume on the Gospel of John” (homepage “Neuer Wettstein”). From then on the work rests. Erich Klostermann (1870-1963), who was about to retire (in 1936) when Windisch died, took over the management of the project on an interim basis.

To the Imperial and Prussian Minister

A letter from Erwin Klostermann to the Minister for Science etc. From the University Archive of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Continuation of the letter

The second page of Erwin Klostermann's letter to the Minister of Science, etc.

End of the letter

The last page of Erwin Klostermann's letter to the Minister of Science, etc.

Difficult times (1939-1946)

On May 10, 1939, the Halle faculty decided to approve the proposed division of the CH into a “Judaeo-hellenisticum” (which was to remain in Halle) and a “Pagano-hellenisticum” (which was to go to Uppsala). Anton Fridrichsen and Erich Klostermann report on the separation in the ZNW (Zum Corpus Hellenisticum, ZNW 40, 1941, 255 [due to the war, however, this issue did not appear until the summer of 1943]).

In the summer of 1943, 22 boxes of notes containing the CPH material were transferred to Uppsala (excerpts from the old Wettstein and other sources and those notes that the editors had already handed in [ca. 16,600 up to 1935]). Those remaining in Halle are stored for fear of war damage.

In 1944 Anton Fridrichsen resumes the old idea of a monograph series. A volume on each relevant Hellenistic author and their connections to the NT was to be compiled under the name “Wetstenius Redivivus”. The money for this was to come from Sweden.

In 1946, the first of the monographs initiated by Fridrichsen was published: A. Almqvist, Plutarch und das Neue Testament. A contribution to the Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti. A monograph on “Stoa and the New Testament” announced by Fridrichsen in 1915 was never published.

The CJH in the GDR (1951-1989)

In 1951, the appointment of Herbert Preisker (1888-1952), a proven specialist in Hellenism from Jena (since 1947) to Halle, was hoped to bring new impetus to the CJH project, of which Preisker became director. Herbert Preisker died on Christmas Eve 1952 and the position in Halle was once again vacant.

In 1953, just under a year later, on November 16, Anton Fridrichsen also died, having been largely unable to work since 1949 due to a serious illness. He is succeeded by Harald Riesenfeld.

In 1955 Kurt Aland reported on the status of the work in ThLZ 80, 1955, 627f. From this it emerges that, contrary to the decision of the Commission for Late Antique Religious History of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin initiated by Kurt Aland in 1954, according to which the Corpus Hellenisticum was to be included in the Academy's work program and the material from Uppsala was to be brought back to Halle, the Uppsala material was to go to Willem Cornelis van Unnik in Utrecht. For the first time since 1925, a concrete work program appears in New Testament Studies 2, 1956, 217-221 (written by K. Aland). Hans Dieter Betz joined van Unnik's staff in Utrecht in 1966. After the death of W. C. van Unnik (1978), Pieter Willem van der Horst and Gerard Mussies took over as directors.

Meanwhile, ten theology students in Halle begin to reorganize the Corpus. Aland, who has several assistant positions available at this time, transfers one of these positions to Gerhard Delling. Other members of staff are Nikolaus Walter (1955-1964), Harald Hegermann, Traugott Holtz and Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr. All those involved produced numerous literary contributions in the context of the Corpus program, but there were no opportunities in the GDR to tackle the original commentary project.

The publication of the Corpus Pagano-Hellenisticum as the “New Wettstein”

In 1986, the revision of the “old Wettstein” began in Göttingen under the direction of Georg Strecker. In his presentation of the project of the New Wettstein, Strecker explicitly ties in with the position of the religious-historical school, according to which Christianity emerged from (Palestinian) Judaism and non-Jewish pagan Hellenism. The new Wettstein is intended to present this - also in confrontation with the purely Jewish derivation.

With Strecker's death in 1994, the project returned to Halle through Udo Schnelle (in Halle since 1992), where the first two volumes on the New Testament letters and Revelation, totaling 1831 pages, were published in 1996. Since then, further volumes on the Gospels have been published.

The Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum from 2000 onwards

In 2001, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr set up a new office for the CJHNT in Jena and the project was restarted. Jens Herzer also obtained short-term funding for parts of the project in Leipzig. During this phase, several conference proceedings were published and a fundamental course was set.

In the period that followed, several attempts to fund the CJHNT failed. It was not until 2023 that project funding was approved for implementation via the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, allowing the project to officially start in April 2024. It is scheduled to run for 15 years.

Literatur

About the History of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum

The most accurate account of the history of the Corpus Hellenisticum was written by Nikolaus Walter: Zur Chronik des Corpus Hellenisticum von den Anfängen bis 1955/58, in: W. Kraus / K.-W. Niebuhr (eds.), Frühjudentum und Neues Testament im Horizont Biblischer Theologie. With an appendix on the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti, WUNT 162, Tübingen 2003, 325-344.

Further documents from the work of the project before 1945 have been reprinted op. cit. 303-324.

On the perspectives of the project in the past and present, see K.-W. Niebuhr, Das Corpus Hellenisticum. Notes on the history of a problem, op. cit. 361-379.

On the historical research context, see G. Seelig, Religionsgeschichtliche Methode in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Studien zur Geschichte und Methode des religionsgeschichtlichen Vergleichs in der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft (Arbeiten zur Bibel und ihrer Geschichte 7), Leipzig 2001 (on the Corpus Hellenisticum: 122-259).

About the Projects Past Particpants

Kurt Aland (1915–1994)
S. Heid, Kurt Aland, in: S.Heid/M. Dennert (Hg.), Personenlexikon zur Christlichen Archäologie. Forscher und Persönlichkeiten vom 16. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert I, Regensburg 2012, 54f.

Walter Bauer
G. Strecker, Walter Bauer – Exeget, Philologe und Historiker, NT 20 (1978) 75-80.

Henry J. Cadbury (1883–1974)
J. Krippner/D.H. Watt, Henry Cadbury. Quaker, pacifist, and skeptic, Leiden/Boston 2024.

Carl Clemen (1865-1940)
U. Vollmer, Carl Clemen und die Religionsgeschichte, Berlin u.a. 2021.

Gerhard Delling (1905–1986)
K.-W. Niebuhr, Der Neutestamentler Gerhard Delling (1905–1986) als Erforscher des Frühjudentums, in: G. Delling, Studien zum Frühjudentum. Gesammelte Aufsätze 1971–1987, hg.v. C. Breytenbach/K.-W. Niebuhr, Göttingen 2000, 11–22.
C. Breytenbach, Perspektiven der Erforschung des Diasporajudentums und des frühen Christentums. Zum Gedenken des 100. Geburtstages Gerhard Dellings, BThZ 23, 2006, 99–115.
T. Holtz, Gerhard Delling (1905–1986), in: C. Breytenbach/R. Hoppe (Hgg.), Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft nach 1945: Hauptvertreter der deutschsprachigen Exegese in der Darstellung ihrer Schüler, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2008, 177–185.

Adolf Deißmann (1866-1937)
C. Breytenbach/Ch. Markschies (Hg.), Adolf Deissmann. Ein (zu Unrecht) fast vergessener Theologe und Philologe, Leiden 2019.

Martin Dibelius (1883-1947)
O. Wischmeyer, Dibelius, Martin (Franz), in: E.-M. Becker u.a. (Hg.), Der »Kritisch-exegetische Kommentar« in seiner Geschichte: H.A.W. Meyers KEK von seiner Gründung 1829 bis heute, Göttingen 2018, 508f.

Ernst von Dobschütz (1870–1934)
U. Mell, Dobschütz, Ernst (Adolf Alfred Oskar Adalbert) von, in: E.-M. Becker u.a. (Hg.), Der »Kritisch-exegetische Kommentar« in seiner Geschichte: H.A.W. Meyers KEK von seiner Gründung 1829 bis heute, Göttingen 2018, 509.

Anton Fridrichsen (1888–1953)
https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd119238233.html

Georg Heinrici (1844–1915)
M. Frenschkowski/L. Seehausen (Hg.), Im Gespräch mit C.F. Georg Heinrici. Beiträge zwischen Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (WUNT II/546), Tübingen 2021.

Wilhelm Heitmüller (1869-1926)
O. Merk, DOI: 10.1515/ebr.heitmullerwilhelm

Traugott Holtz (1931-2007)
K. Tanner, Zum Gedenken Traugott Holtz, ThLZ 132 (2007) 1161f.

Gerhard Kittel
L. Bormann, Kittel, Gerhard, NDB-online, veröffentlicht am 01.10.2022, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/118562592.html#dbocontent
L. Bormann/A. Zwiep (Hg.), Gerhad Kittel. Auf dem Weg zu einer Biographie, 2022.
M. Gailus/C. Vollnhals (Hg.), Christlicher Antisemitismus im 20. Jahrhundert. Der Tübinger Theologe und „Judenforscher“ Gerhard Kittel, 2019.
H. Junginger, Die Verwissenschaftlichung der „Judenfrage“ im Nationalsozialismus, 2013.

Erich Klostermann (1870–1963)
K. Aland, Klostermann, Erich, NDB 12 (1980) 124-125, https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd116234946.html#ndbcontent
M. Meiser, Erich Klostermann (14.2.1870–18.9.1963, in: F. John/S. Rinker (Hg.), Exegese in ihrer Zeit. Ausleger neutestamentlicher Texte (ABIG 52), Leipzig 2015, 96–120.

Johannes Leipoldt (1880–1965)
Ch. Haufe, Leipoldt, Johannes, NDB 14 (1985) 151–152; https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd137805918.html#ndbcontent
M. Schult, Anpassungsbereit und stets zu Diensten. Zeit- und Streitfragen zu Johannes Leipoldt (1880–1965), in: F. John/S. Rinker (Hg.), Exegese in ihrer Zeit. Ausleger neutestamentlicher Texte (ABIG 52), Leipzig 2015, 121–140.

Hans Lietzmann (1875–1942)
W. Kinzig, Hans Lietzmann (1875–1942), in: R. Schmidt-Rost/S. Bitter/M. Dutzmann (Hg.), Theologie als Vermittlung. Bonner evangelische Theologen des 19. Jahrhunderts im Porträt, Rheinbach 2003, 220–231.

Harald Riesenfeld (1913-2008)
L. Hartman, Harald Riesenfeld in memoriam, Svensk exegetisk årsbok 74 (2009) 181-186.

Nikolaus Walter (1932–2013)
K.-W. Niebuhr, Zum Gedenken an den Neutestamentler Nikolaus Walter (1932-2013), Jahrbuch der Akademie Gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften zu Erfurt (2013/14) 148-150.

Johann Jakob Wettstein (1693-1754)
S. Castelli, Johann Jakob Wettstein's Principles for New Testament textual criticism. A fight for scholarly freedom, Leiden/Boston 2020.

Hans Windisch (1881–1935)
F.-W. Horn, Hans Windisch. Theologe, Exeget und Religionsgeschichtler an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (1929–1935), in: F. John/S. Rinker (Hg.), Exegese in ihrer Zeit. Ausleger neutestamentlicher Texte (ABIG 52), Leipzig 2015, 141–157.