From: Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Date: Sat Feb 21 1998 - 00:41:01 EST
>Colleagues of the B-Greek List:
>
> It is my sad responsibility to bring you news of the death on
>Tuesday (17 February 1998) of one of the last giants of New Testament
>scholarship in our time, Ernst KŠsemann of TŸbingen.
>
> He was 91 years old.
>
> Those of us who spent time with him personally will miss him very
>much. He was a person of great integrity and great courage.
>
I want to second strongly Edward's encomium. I spent two years in TŸbingen,
ate meals in K¬semann's home, was his house guest on several visits. I
rejoice that I have a bit of his voice on tape. [Where did you get the
information, Edward? Was there a published obituary?]
Have you any priceless anecdotes, Edward? I recall that in his lectures NT
theology he would take off his glasses, look up from his written lecture,
and say, "Jetzt werde ich erbaulich." That meant he was going to leave the
first century, so to speak, and speak to the twentieth on the basis of the
NT text he was addressing.
I also recall his comment on existential interpretation: "Manchmal wŠre es
gut wenn man seine Voraussetzungen aus der Bekenntnisschriften nehmen
werde, und nicht aus irgendeiner profanen Philosophie." He cited more
Luther than any of the exegetes who taught me in the very conservative
Concordia Seminary of the Missouri Synod.
I could go on with a few more, but these will have to do. I recall the
evening when hke discussed die Hitlerzeit with die Amerikaner for four
hours "in irgendeiner Kneipe" and being fascinated by his anecdotes. And I
recall the bitter feelings he had when his daughter was assasinated in
Argentina for working with the poor in the barrios there.
As you say, a giant has fallen; and, I am happy to say, a Lutheran one to
the core.
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Edgar Krentz
Professor of New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Telephone: (773) 256-0752
e-mail: Office: ekrentz@lstc.edu;
Home: emkrentz@mcs.com
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