Claus Westermann

Claus Westermann
Born	October 7, 1909 Berlin, German Empire
Died	June 11, 2000 Heidelberg, Germany
Education	University of Tübingen University of Marburg University of Berlin University of Zurich, Zurich
Parent(s)	Mother: Katharina Father: Diedrich Westermann
Church	Lutheran
Writings	See section on Writings of Westermann
Congregations served	Berlin-Dahlem Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin
Offices held	Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, University of Heidelberg
Title	Reverend Doctor

Claus Westermann (7 October 1909 – 11 June 2000) was a German Protestant Old Testament scholar.^[1] He taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1958 to 1978.^[1]

Born to African missionaries, he finished his studies in 1933 he became a pastor. During his theological studies he started studying the Old Testament, and became particularly interested in the content of the Psalms. During the Nazi regime he served in the German army for five years where he was a translator on the Russian front. After the war Westermann started preaching again and also went to teach Old Testament at Heidelberg, where he would continue to teach for twenty years with colleagues such as Gerhard von Rad, Hans Walter Wolff, and Rolf Rendtorff.^[2]

Westermann is considered one of the premier Old Testament scholars of the twentieth century. Particularly notable among his scholarship is his lengthy and comprehensive commentary on the Book of Genesis, especially the volume covering Genesis 1-11.

Select Publications of Westermann

Some works that have been translated into English

• Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech (English translation 1967)
• "Also Thousand Years and a Day-Our Time in the Old Testament" 1957, (English translation 1962)
• The Psalms: Structure, Content and Message (English translation 1980)
• Elements of Old Testament Theology (English translation 1982)
• Genesis 1 - 11
• Genesis 12 - 36
• Genesis 37 - 50

References

Notes

1. Luther Seminary Word & World (1/2) 1981
2. Brueggemann, Walter (1999). "Westermann, Claus". In John H. Hayes. Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, v. 2. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press. pp. 633–634. ISBN 9780687055319.

Further reading

• James Limburg in Word & World (1981). "Old Testament Theology for Ministry: The Works of Claus Westermann in English Translation" (PDF) (1/2).
• T.L. Hettema. (in Dutch) http://web.archive.org/web/20050521215304/http://website.leidenuniv.nl:80/~hettematl/Onderzoek/Westermann_rec.html. Archived from the original on May 21, 2005. Retrieved 2015-12-28. Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Claus Westermann in Word and World (1989). "The Human in the Old Testament" (PDF) (9/4).