Joachim Begrich (13 June 1900 – 26 April 1945) 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 ...

and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

born in Predel, a hamlet now belonging to

Elsteraue Elsteraue is a municipality in the Burgenlandkreis district in Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany. It is situated near the White Elster river, about southwest of Leipzig. Districts It is divided into many municipal districts: *Bornitz *Draschwitz ...

in the state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

. He was the son of a pastor and the son-in-law of

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 ...

scholar

Hermann Gunkel Hermann Gunkel (; 23 May 1862 – 11 March 1932), a German Old Testament scholar, founded form criticism. He also became a leading representative of the history of religions school. His major works cover Genesis and the Psalms, and his major ...

(1862–1932). He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The fie ...

and

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, then transferred to Halle, where he focused his studies on theology. In 1923/24 he attended the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

, earning his doctorate at Halle in 1926.Joachim Begrich
Catalogus Professorum Halensis In 1930 he was appointed associate professor of

Old Testament studies 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 canon ...

at the University of Leipzig.Prof. Dr. theol. Joachim Begrich
Professorenkatalog der Universität Leipzig During World War II he served as a paramedic, and lost his life in Dussoi, near Belluno, Italy less than two weeks prior to the end of hostilities in Europe. Begrich was the author of a scholarly work on the chronology of the kings of Israel (Bible), Israel and Judah (Bible), Judah called ''Die Chronologie der Könige von Israel und Juda'' (1929), and a book on "Deutero-Isaiah" titled ''Studien zu Deuterojesaja'' (1938). He also assisted Hermann Gunkel with the latter's ''Einleitung in die Psalmen'', later translated into English and published with the title ''Introduction to Psalms : the genres of the religious lyric of Israel''. Two of his most memorable essays are on the priestly oracle of salvation/deliverance and the priestly Torah; these appear in his ''Gesammelte Studien''.

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References

1900 births 1945 deaths People from Burgenlandkreis People from the Province of Saxony 20th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers Academic staff of Leipzig University German military personnel killed in World War II {{Germany-academic-bio-stub