About the history of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum

Text by Roland Deines and Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr. Translation by Kathrin Väterlein. This page is still under construction.

Background

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 distinguished specialist in Hellenistic studies, from Jena (where he had been since 1947) to Halle was expected to provide new impetus for the CJH project, of which Preisker became director. However, Preisker died on Christmas Eve 1952, leaving the position in Halle vacant once again. On November 16, 1953, less than a year later, Anton Fridrichsen also passed away, having been largely incapacitated by severe illness since 1949. He was succeeded by Harald Riesenfeld (1913–2008).

In 1955, Kurt Aland (1915-1994) reported on the project's status in ThLZ 80, 1955, 627f. His report revealed that, contrary to the 1954 resolution of the Commission for Late Antique Religious History of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (which Aland had initiated) to incorporate the Corpus Hellenisticum into the Academy's work program, the materials from Uppsala were to be transferred to Willem Cornelis van Unnik (1910–1978) in Utrecht rather than being returned to Halle. For the first time since 1925, a new work program, authored by Aland, appeared in NTS 2, 1956, 217-221. Following his appointment to Claremont (1963) and later Chicago (1978), Hans Dieter Betz continued the pagan-Hellenistic portion of the project in the United States. After W. C. van Unnik's death, Pieter Willem van der Horst and Gerard Mussies assumed leadership in Utrecht.

In 1955, ten theology students in Halle began reorganizing the materials that remained there. Gerhard Delling (1905–1986), who had been teaching in Halle since 1950, was allocated funding by Aland from the Academy for a research position, which was held by Nikolaus Walter (1932–2013) from 1955 to 1964. Additional contributors through approximately 1970, mostly serving as research assistants without permanent positions, included Martin Johannes Fiedler, Waltraud Fabricius (née Zachhuber), Gerhard Zachhuber, Heinz Berthold, and Malwine Maser. The project's most significant achievement during this period was the "Bibliography of Hellenistic-Jewish and Intertestamental Literature" (TU 106, Berlin 1969; 2nd revised and updated edition 1975), produced under Delling's direction. Other New Testament scholars active in Halle during this period, including Traugott Holtz, Harald Hegermann, Eckart Reinmuth, and Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, made indirect contributions to the project through their research. However, the conditions of academic theology in the German Democratic Republic precluded the possibility of maintaining continuous progress on 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 established a research center for the CJHNT in Jena and, together with Roland Deines, resumed work on the project. This initiative led to the development of a new comprehensive project framework, which included detailed methodological guidelines for contributors. The project's leadership was subsequently expanded to include Jens Herzer (Leipzig), Christfried Böttrich (Greifswald), and Matthias Konradt (Heidelberg). Since then, five international symposia on the CJHNT have been held on a triennial basis, with the proceedings published by Mohr Siebeck in the series "Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament" (Scientific Studies on the New Testament). Between 2003 and 2019, project members convened annually for working conferences in Wittenberg. Following his appointment to Leipzig (1999), Jens Herzer secured several short-term funding arrangements for various components of the project. However, multiple attempts to secure permanent funding for full-time researchers were unsuccessful. It was not until 2023 that the CJHNT was incorporated into the program of the Academies of Sciences and Humanities, receiving funding as a project of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig for a fifteen-year period beginning in 2024.

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.