Alfred Rahlfs (; ; 29 May 1865 – 8 April 1935) was a German
Biblical scholar
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...
Hanover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
, and studied
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
Theology, Philosophy, and Oriental Languages in Halle and
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
, where he received a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in 1887. His professional career developed in
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
Privatdozent
''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
(from 1919). He retired in 1933 and died in
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
.
Influenced by his teacher Paul de Lagarde, Rahlfs's academic interest focused on the
Septuagint
The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
, the Greek translation of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' Rudolf Smend and others, Rahlfs was responsible for the creation of the Septuaginta-Unternehmen under Göttingen's and Berlin's Academies of Sciences and Humanities in 1907, which he directed from 1908 until 1933. Its goal has been to reconstruct the original wording of the Septuagint, and since Rahlfs' death it had published twenty volumes.
Rahlfs edited a preliminary but influential edition of the Septuagint, which appeared in two volumes in the year he died, in addition to one critical volume (''Psalmi cum Odis'') and two slim volumes on the
Book of Ruth
The Book of Ruth (, ''Megillath Ruth'', "the Scroll of Ruth", one of the Five Megillot) is included in the third division, or the Writings ( Ketuvim), of the Hebrew Bible. In most Christian canons it is treated as one of the historical books ...
and Genesis. In 2006, a revision of his ''Septuaginta'', made by Robert Hanhart, was published by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. This ''editio altera'' includes over a thousand changes to the text and apparatus. Rahlfs' sigla of Septuagint manuscripts are still cited.
Select bibliography
*Alfred Rahlfs ''Septuaginta-Studien'' 3 vols., Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1904–11.
*Alfred Rahlfs ''Verzeichniz der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, für das Septuaginta-Unternehmen'' Göttingen 1914.
*Alfred Rahlfs (ed.), ''Das Buch Rut griechisch als Probe einer kritischen Handausgabe der LXX'', Stuttgart: Privileg. Württ. Bibelanstalt, 1922.
*Alfred Rahlfs (ed.), ''Genesis, Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum graecum I'', Stuttgart: Privilegierte Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1926.
*Alfred Rahlfs (ed.), Psalmi cum Odis, Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum graecum X.1 ', Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1931.
*Alfred Rahlfs (ed.), ''Septuaginta: id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes'', 2 vols., Stuttgart: Privileg. Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1935.