Ralph Walter Klein (1936 – December 29, 2021) was an American

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated 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 writings by the Israelites. The ...

scholar. He was

Christ Seminary-Seminex Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile (later Christ Seminary-Seminex), which existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ong ...

Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at the

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Ma ...

. Klein was born in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest ...

, and studied at Concordia College in Wisconsin,

Concordia Senior College Concordia Senior College was a liberal arts college located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). It was founded in 1957 and closed in 1977. The senior college was a new type of institution for t ...

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Founded in 183 ...

, and

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, go ...

. He was ordained as a pastor in the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The L ...

in 1966, and taught at Concordia Senior College and Concordia Seminary. After a period as a pastor in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Klein taught at

before moving to the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) in 1983. He served as dean at LSTC from 1988 to 1999. Klein wrote commentaries on

1 Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Josh ...

( WBC),

1 Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sect ...

, and

2 Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sec ...

. He was editor of ''

Currents in Theology and Mission ''Currents in Theology and Mission'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed open access academic journal of theology published by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Wartburg Theological Seminary. The editors-in-chief are Kathleen D. Billman and C ...

'' from 1974 to 2009. In 2003, a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

'' was published in his honor. ''The Chronicler as Theologian: Essays in Honor of Ralph W. Klein'' included contributions from Robert H. Smith, Gary N. Knoppers and Leslie C. Allen. Klein died on December 29, 2021, at the age of 85.

References

1936 births 2021 deaths American biblical scholars Old Testament scholars Bible commentators American academic journal editors People from Springfield, Illinois Concordia University Wisconsin alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago faculty Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod people Concordia Seminary alumni {{US-theologian-stub