Robert Hanhart (born July 6, 1925) is a Swiss Protestant theologian known for his scholarship of the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, the Greek version of the Jewish scriptures. He is a professor emeritus of 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 ...

at the

Faculty of Theology, University of Göttingen ) , latin_name = , established =1737 , closed = , type = Divinity , parent = University of Göttingen , dean = , academic_staff = , administrative_staff = , students ...

and served as the director of the (Göttingen Septuagint Company), an institute of the

Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Göttingen Academy of Sciences (german: Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen)Note that the German ''Wissenschaft'' has a wider meaning than the English "Science", and includes Social sciences and Humanities. is the second oldest of the se ...

dedicated to creating

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

s of works of the Septuagint.

Biography

Robert Hanhart was born in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

, Switzerland on July 6, 1925. He studied

classical philology Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and

classical history Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

. He earned his doctorate in 1954. He first worked for a year at Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, a project to create a medieval Latin dictionary. He then moved to the

in Germany, where he worked as a research assistant at the . The first book released under his editorship was a 1959

of the book

2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees, el, Μακκαβαίων Β´, translit=Makkabaíōn 2 also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus I ...

in its Greek Septuagint form which he had taken over from the work of . In 1961, he was appointed head of the department. In 1962 he received a doctorate in

theology 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 ...

from the

. He completed a

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 1965 with his thesis being his edition of the

Book of Esther The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Judaism, Jewish ''Tanak ...

; this allowed him to be appointed an adjunct professor of the Old Testament at Göttingen in 1967. In 1977, he became a full professor. He took emeritus status and retired from his professorship in 1990, and retired as director of the Septuagint Company in 1993. However, he continued to work in the field, writing the book ''Studien zur Septuaginta und zum hellenistischen Judentum'' in 1999 and providing forwards, commentary, and editorship for other projects. Hanhart has received honorary degrees from both the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

's theology department as well as the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

in recognition of his work on the Septuagint.Studien zur Septuaginta, Robert Hanhart zu Ehren : aus Anlass seines 65. Geburtstages
p. 17, Foreword.

Works

;Books * with

Reinhard Gregor Kratz Reinhard Gregor Kratz (* July 25, 1957, in Offenbach am Main) is a German biblical scholar, historian of ancient Judaism, and Protestant theologian. He currently serves as professor of Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, in the Faculty of Theology at ...

: ''Studien zur Septuaginta und zum hellenistischen Judentum''. Tübingen 1999. ;

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 h ...

* D. Fraenkel, J. W. Wevers, Udo Quast (editors.): ''Studien zur Septuaginta – Robert Hanhart zu Ehren. Aus Anlaß seines 65. Geburtstages''. Göttingen 1990. ;Editor * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol IX,2: Maccabaeorum liber II''. Göttingen 1959. 2nd edition 1976, 3rd edition 2008. (

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol IX,3: Maccabaeorum liber III''. Göttingen 1960. 2nd edition 1980. (

3 Maccabees 3 Maccabees, el, Μακκαβαίων Γ´, translit=Makkabaíōn 3 also called the Third Book of Maccabees, is a book written in Koine Greek, likely in the 1st century BC in Roman Egypt. Despite the title, the book has nothing to do with the Ma ...

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol VIII,3: Esther''. Göttingen 1966. 2nd edition 1983. (

Esther Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol VIII,1: Esdrae liber I''. Göttingen 1974. 2nd edition 1991. (

1 Esdras 1 Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας Αʹ), also Esdras A, Greek Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras, is the ancient Greek Septuagint version of the biblical Book of Ezra in use within the early church, and among many modern Christians with varying degr ...

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol VIII,4: Iudith''. Göttingen 1979. (

Book of Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible, but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the apocrypha. It tells ...

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol VIII,5: Tobit''. Göttingen 1983. (

Book of Tobit The Book of Tobit () ''Tōbith'' or ''Tōbit'' ( and spellings are also attested) itself from he, טובי ''Tovi'' "my good"; Book of Tobias in the Vulgate from the Greek ''Tōbias'', itself from the Hebrew ''Tovyah'' " Yah is good", also k ...

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol VIII,2: Esdrae liber II''. Göttingen 1993. (

2 Esdras 2 Esdras (also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra) is an apocalyptic book in some English versions of the Bible. Tradition ascribes it to Ezra, a scribe and priest of the , but scholarship places its composition between 70 and . It ...

) * ''Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Vol VII,2: Paralipomenon liber II''. Göttingen 2014. (

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 sect ...

) ;Articles * ''Das Bild der Jeanne d’Arc in der französischen Historiographie des Spätmittelalters bis zur Aufklärung''. Basel 1955 (Dissertation) * ''Zum Text des 2. und 3. Makkabäerbuches''. Göttingen 1961 (''Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens'' 7; auch als Dissertation, Göttingen 1962) * ''Drei Studien zum Judentum''. München 1967 * ''Sacharja''. Neukirchen-Vluyn 1990 (''Biblischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament'') * ''Ein unbekannter Text zur griechischen Esra-Überlieferung''. Göttingen 1995 (''Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens'' 22) * ''Text und Textgeschichte des 2. Esrabuches''. Göttingen 2003 (''Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens'' 25)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanhart, Robert Hanhart 1925 births Living people Academic staff of the University of Göttingen University of Göttingen alumni University of Basel alumni 20th-century Protestant theologians 20th-century Christian biblical scholars Classical philologists Swiss biblical scholars People from St. Gallen (city) Old Testament scholars Swiss emigrants to Germany