Joachim Jeremias (20 September 1900 – 6 September 1979) was a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

theologian, scholar of

Near Eastern 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 studie ...

and university professor for

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

studies. He was abbot of Bursfelde, 1968–1971. He was born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and spent his formative years in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, where between 1910 and 1918 his father, Friedrich Jeremias (1868–1945), worked as Provost of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. He studied Lutheran theology and

Oriental languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...

at the universities of Tübingen and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. In Leipzig he obtained both a "Doctor philosophiae (Dr.phil.)" (1922) and a "Doctor theologiae (Dr.theol.)" (1923) degree (''

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

'' and ''

Th.D. Doctor of Theology ( la, Doctor Theologiae, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equiva ...

'' in English), followed by his ''

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 ...

'' (1925). His mentor was the renowned

Gustaf Dalman Gustaf Hermann Dalman (9 June 1855 – 19 August 1941) was a German Lutheran theologian and orientalist. He did extensive field work in Palestine before the First World War, collecting inscriptions, poetry, and proverbs. He also collected physic ...

. After other teaching assignments, Jeremias was appointed in 1935 to the chair of New Testament studies at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, where he taught until his retirement in 1968. In 1976, Jeremias moved from

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

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 ...

, where he died in 1979.

Academic work

His research and publications covered a wide field, ranging from historical and archaeological to literary and philosophical studies. They concentrate on the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

and

Rabbinic texts Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...

relevant for a critical analysis of the

in order to reconstruct the historical environment of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in all its complexity, to provide a deeper understanding of his life and teachings. His achievements found national and international acknowledgment, recognized by the admission into the

Göttingen Academy of Sciences Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The or ...

in 1948 and the award of honorary doctorates from the universities of Leipzig,

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

(Britain),

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

(Sweden), and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(Britain). He became a foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1958. He was elected a corresponding fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

in 1973. Finally, in 1970 he was made an honorary fellow of the ''Deutsche Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas'' (''German association for research on Palestine'').

Jeremias on the New Testament Apocrypha

He worked with

Wilhelm Schneemelcher Wilhelm Schneemelcher (21 August 1914, Berlin – 6 August 2003, Bad Honnef) was a German Protestant theologian and expert on the New Testament Apocrypha. Career He obtained through Hans Lietzmann a post researching Latin and Greek manuscripts ...

in revisions of the Hennecke-Schneemelcher collection of

New Testament Apocrypha The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cit ...

Jeremias on Jesus in the Talmud

Jeremias took a stand on the passages generally regarded as relating to

Jesus in the Talmud There are several passages in the Talmud which are believed by some scholars to be references to Jesus. The name used in the Talmud is "Yeshu", the Aramaic vocalization (although not spelling) of the Hebrew name ''Yeshua''. The identification o ...

which supported medieval rabbinical defences that the ''Yeshu'' the deceiver mentioned in the Talmud was a different Jesus from the Jesus of Christianity. Related to this he also supported

David Flusser David Flusser (Hebrew: דוד פלוסר; born 1917; died 2000) was an Israeli professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Biography David Flusser was born in Vienna on Septem ...

's suggestion that the name ''Yeshu'' itself was in no way abusive, but 'almost certainly' a Galilean dialect form of

Yeshua Yeshua or Y'shua (; with vowel pointing he, יֵשׁוּעַ, Yēšūaʿ, labels=no) was a common alternative form of the name Yehoshua ( he, יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Yəhōšūaʿ, Joshua, labels=no) in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jew ...

. Jeremias himself recounted in 1966 that he had discovered the only known confirmed inscription of the spelling ''Yeshu'' in Bethesda, but that this inscription was now covered.New Testament theology Joachim Jeremias - 1977 "... 1965, 284-93: 285; a graffito which I found in the south wall of the southern pool at Bethesda, now covered in, also read [y\fw ', see my: The Rediscovery of Bethesda, New Testament Archaeology Monograph No I, Louisville, Ky., 1966, ..."

Publications in English

* - (orig. German in Kittel, Stuttgart, 1952) * - (orig. German pub. by Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1956) *''Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries,'' trans. D. Cairns (1962; reprinted, 2004; German ed.: 1958) *''The Sermon on the Mount,'' trans. Norman Perrin (1963; German ed.: 1959) *''The Lord's Prayer,'' trans. John Reumann (1964; German ed.: 1962) *''The Key to Pauline Theology'' (October 1, 1964.

The Expository Times ''The Expository Times'' is a long-established academic journal of biblical studies, theology, and Christian ministry, ministry established in 1889 by the Scotland, Scottish theologian James Hastings. The journal is abstracted and indexed in the AT ...

; Volume: 76 issue: 1, page(s): 27-30) *''The Problem of the Historical Jesus,'' trans.

Norman Perrin Norman Perrin (29 November 1920 – 25 November 1976) was an English-born, American biblical scholar at the University of Chicago. Perrin specialized in the study of the New Testament, and was internationally known for his work on the teachin ...

(1964; German ed.: 1960) *''Unknown Sayings of Jesus,'' trans. Reginald H. Fuller (1964; German ed.: 1949) *''The Central Message of the New Testament'' (1965; reprinted, 1981) *''The Eucharistic Words of Jesus,'' trans. Norman Perrin (1966; reprinted, 1977; 3d German ed.: 1960) *''Rediscovering the Parables of Jesus'' (1966; abridgement of ''The Parables of Jesus'') *''The Rediscovery of Bethesda, John 5:2'' (1966; German ed.: 1949) *''The Prayers of Jesus,'' trans. John Bowden et al. (1967; German ed.: 1958) *''Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus: An Investigation into Economic & Social Conditions During the New Testament Period,'' trans. F. H. Cave and C. H. Cave (1969; German ed.: 1967) *''New Testament Theology,'' trans. John Bowden (1971; German ed.: 1971) *''The Origins of Infant Baptism: A Further Reply to

Kurt Aland Kurt Aland (28 March 1915 – 13 April 1994) was a German theologian and biblical scholar who specialized in New Testament textual criticism. He founded the '' Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung'' (Institute for New Testament Textua ...

,'' trans. Dorothea M. Barton (1971; German ed.: 1962) *''The Parables of Jesus,'' 2d ed., trans. S. H. Hooke (1972; German ed.: 1958) *''Jesus and the Message of the New Testament,'' edited by K. C. Hanson, Fortress Classics in Biblical Studies (2002) *''The Theological Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls,'' trans. D.J. Zersen (1975; German ed.: 1962)
The ‘Pinnacle’ of the Temple (Matt. 4:5; Luke 4:9)

WholeStones.org

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeremias, Joachim 1900 births 1979 deaths 20th-century German Protestant theologians Clergy from Dresden Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy German biblical scholars German Lutheran theologians German male non-fiction writers Leipzig University alumni Lutheran biblical scholars Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences New Testament scholars University of Göttingen faculty University of Tübingen alumni 20th-century Lutherans