Alfred Rahlfs

Who was Alfred Rahlfs?

Alfred Rahlfs was a German Biblical scholar. He was born in Linden near Hanover, and studied Protestant Theology, Philosophy, and Oriental Languages in Halle and Göttingen, where he received a Dr. Phil. in 1881. His professional career developed in Göttingen, where he was Stiftsinspektor, Privatdozent, Extraordinarius, and Professor for Old Testament. He retired in 1933 and died in Göttingen.

Influenced by his teacher Paul de Lagarde, Rahlfs's academic interest focused on the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Together with Rudolf Smend and others, Rahlfs was responsible for the creation of the Septuaginta-Unternehmen under Göttingen's and Berlin's Academies of Sciences and Humanities in 1907, which he directed from 1908 until 1933. Its goal has been to reconstruct the original wording of the Septuagint, and since Rahlfs' death it had published twenty volumes.

Rahlfs edited a preliminary but influential edition of the Septuagint, which appeared in two volumes in the year he died, in addition to one critical volume and two slim volumes on the Book of Ruth and Genesis.