On the 7th of October, 1909, Claus Westermann was born in Berlin. He would become one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of his generation (in my estimation taking 3rd place- after von Rad and Eichrodt).
Westermann wrote quite widely, as this listing quickly demonstrates.
Because he’s worth remembering.
On the 7th of October, 1909, Claus Westermann was born in Berlin. He would become one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of his generation (in my estimation taking 3rd place- after von Rad and Eichrodt).
Westermann wrote quite widely (thankfully having lived in a day when scholars didn’t focus so narrowly that they knew the entrails of the gnat, but nothing else), as this listing quickly demonstrates. He didn’t know just Genesis, or just the Psalms, or just one of the Prophets. He knew them, and more of them, and better of them, than most of our over-specialists.
Besides that, he was by all accounts an absolutely wonderful Christian. May his tribe of expert scholars widely informed and sincerely devout increase in these troubled times of ours.
On the 7th of October, 1909, Claus Westermann was born in Berlin. He would become one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of his generation (in my estimation taking 3rd place- after von Rad and Eichrodt).
Westermann wrote quite widely (thankfully having lived in a day when scholars didn’t focus so narrowly that they knew the entrails of the gnat, but nothing else), as this listing quickly demonstrates. He didn’t know just Genesis, or just the Psalms, or just one of the Prophets. He knew them, and more of them, and better of them, than most of our over-specialists.
Besides that, he was by all accounts an absolutely wonderful Christian. May his tribe of expert scholars widely informed and sincerely devout increase in these troubled times of ours.
Claus Westermann was a biblical scholar and exegete most famous for his massive commentary on Genesis- a commentary that has never, and probably will never be surpassed in scope or erudition or, for that matter, exegetical and hermeneutical usefulness. He was born on October 7, 1909.
Though best known for his commentary on Genesis, Westermann published a lot. He wasn’t the sort of narrow academic who only knew Torah or who spent his life studying only one aspect of the Hebrew verbal system. His breadth of knowledge was impressive. A rarity in his own day and even more so these days, when overspecialization has crippled scholarship and some people know only one thing and nothing else.
Westermann’s career was long and he lived quite a long life as well, dying on June 11, 2000. Lest we forget…
Zwinglius Redivivus 
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