Johannes Weiss

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Johannes Weiss

Johannes Weiss (December 13, 1863 – August 24, 1914) was a German

biblical exegete. He was a member of the history of religions school
.

History

Weiss was born in

University of Heidelberg. He wrote many influential books and papers, and was instrumental in the development of New Testament biblical criticism.[1] He was held in the highest regard by his contemporaries, and subsequent scholarship has continued to recognize his wide influence.[2] He died in Heidelberg
.

Ideas

Weiss made the first

Kingdom of God" was Jesus' understanding of an imminent end to history, and all continuous ethical teachings were additions made by the early Church to make Jesus' teaching relevant when the end of the world did not come about immediately. This greatly influenced several generations of Biblical scholars.[2]
As a corollary, Weiss believed that the authentic teachings of the historical Jesus would be inapplicable to those who did not hold his first-century apocalyptic worldview.

Weiss also developed

Apostle Paul, and not a single letter in its own right.[3]

Weiss is particularly notable for giving the name "

Q" to the hypothetical sayings source used by the authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.[4] Many hold that Q stood for "Quelle", the German word for "source", but some recent scholarship indicates that the letter Q was chosen arbitrarily.[5]

Select works

  • Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes ("Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God"), 1892.
  • Paulus und Jesus ("Paul and Jesus"), 1909.
  • Jesus von Nazareth, Mythus oder Geschichte? ("Jesus of Nazareth, Myth or History?"), 1910.
  • Das Urchristentum (completed by R. Knopf as "The History of Primitive Christianity"), 1917.

References

  1. ^ Weiss, Johannes. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 13, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online
  2. ^
    F. Crawford Burkitt
    , Johannes Weiss: In Memoriam, The Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge University Press and Harvard Divinity School, 1915.
  3. ^ George D. Castor (review author), Johannes Weiss's Commentary on I Corinthians, The American Journal of Theology, The University of Chicago Press, 1911.
  4. ^ Travis Brouwer, New Testament, Divinity Library. "New Testament". Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  5. A Marginal Jew
    Volume II, Doubleday, 1994.