Gerhard Johannes Botterweck (25 April 1917, in

Rheydt Rheydt () is a borough of the Germany, German city Mönchengladbach, located in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 1918 and then again from 1933 (due to a split from Mönchengladbach arranged by Joseph Goebbels, who was born there) through ...

– 15 Ajpril 1981, in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

) was a German

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

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 and dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty of the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

. He is best known for his multi volume work the ''Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament''.

Life and work

Botterweck studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Catholic theology Catholic theology is the understanding of Catholic doctrine or teachings, and results from the studies of theologians. It is based on canonical scripture, and sacred tradition, as interpreted authoritatively by the magisterium of the Catholic ...

and

oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 1944 he received his doctorate in Vienna, Ph.D. and the same year was ordained a priest. While a military chaplain on the

Eastern Front (World War II) The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encom ...

he lost a leg. He was chaplain and religion teacher at

Viersen Viersen (; li, Veeëse) is the capital of the district of Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Viersen is situated approximately 8 km north-west of Mönchengladbach, 15 km south-west of Krefeld and 20 km east o ...

(

Diocese of Aachen The Diocese of Aachen is one of 27 dioceses in Germany and one of the six dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cologne. The incumbent bishop is Helmut Dieser, who was appointed by Pope Francis on 23 September 2016. The bishop's seat is Aach ...

). In 1950, his doctoral (PhD) promotion was followed by a Doctorate of Divinity, and in 1953

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in Bonn. From 1953 to 1959 he was professor of Old Testament at

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

, then from 1960 to 1981 in Bonn. His scientific interests were concerned with the

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

and the philology of the biblical languages, the social criticism of the

Prophets In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the su ...

and the theology of the

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

s. Among the pupils of Botterweck were Heinz-Josef Fabry, who completed his dictionary, Manfred Görg, Eric Kettenhofen, Joseph Plöger and Franz-Josef Stendebach.

Works

* ''Die Bibel und ihre Welt. Eine Enzyklopädie zur Heiligen Schrift in zwei Bänden''; * ''Alttestamentliche Studien. Friedrich Nötscher zum sechzigsten Geburtstage 19. Juli 1950''; ed. by Hubert Junker und Gerhard Johannes Botterweck. Hanstein, Bonn 1950 * ''„Gott erkennen“ im Sprachgebrauch des Alten Testaments''; BBB 2. Hanstein, Bonn 1951; Dissertation of 3 July 1950 at the Catholic Faculty of the University of Bonn * ''Der Triliterismus im Semitischen. Erläutert an den Wurzeln gl, kl, ql''; BBB 3. Hanstein, Bonn 1952 * ''Festschrift für Prof. Dr. Viktor Christian. Gewidmet von Kollegen und Schülern zum 70. Geburtstag''; ed. Viktor Christian, Kurt Schubert, Gerhard Johannes Botterweck. Notring der Wissenschaftlichen Verbände Österreichs, Wien 1956 * ''Apokalyptik''; ed. G. Cornefeld and Gerhard Johannes Botterweck; in: BIW 1; Bergisch Gladbach: 1969; S. 59–67 * ''Auslegung von Maleachi 1,2-10; 2,1-16; 3,13-21''. In: ''BiLe'' 1 (1960), S. 28–38, 100–109, 179–185, 253–260 * ''Form- und überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studie zum Dekalog''. In: Conciliurn 1 (1965), S. 392–401 * ''Israels Errettung im Wunder am Meer. Glaube und Geschichte in den Auszugstraditionen von Ex 13,17-14,31''. In: ''BiLe'' 8 (1967), S. 8–33 * ''Das Zelt der Begegnung. Untersuchung zur Gestalt der sakralen Zelttraditionen Altisraels''; hrsg. von Gerhard Johannes Botterweck und H. Zimmermann. BBB 27, Bonn 1967 * ''Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament'' (in trans. ''Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament''), 10 Bände; hrsg. von Gerhard Johannes Botterweck und Helmer Ringgren. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart u. a. 1973–2001 * ''Mix halam''. In: ''TWAT'' II, S. 989.

Literature

* ''Bausteine biblischer Theologie. Festgabe für G. Johannes Botterweck zum 60. Geburtstag dargebracht von seinen Schülern''. Hanstein, Köln und Bonn 1977 * ''

Kürschners deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender ''Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender'' (English: "Kürschner's Encyclopedia of German Scholars"), formerly subtitled ''Lexikon der lebenden deutschsprachigen Wissenschaftler'' ("Encyclopedia of Living German-Speaking Scholars"), is a German l ...

''. de Gruyter, Berlin 1980, 13th ed., p. 387. * Heinz-Josef Fabry: ''Botterweck, Gerhard Johannes''. In: '' LThK³'', Bd. 2, Sp. 614 * Helen Schüngel-Straumann: ''Meine Wege und Umwege. Eine feministische Theologin unterwegs. Autobiografie.'' Paderborn u.a. 2011.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Botterweck, Johannes 1917 births 1981 deaths German biblical scholars