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Professor Reinhard Kratz FBA

The origin of the Hebrew Bible with special emphasis on Pentateuch, historical books, prophets and psalms, the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran) and the history of ancient Judaism in Persian and Hellenistic-Roman times
Headshot of Professor Reinhard Kratz FBA
Fellow type
International Fellow
Honours
FBA
Sections
Theology and Religious Studies
Website
https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/prof.+dr.+reinhard+gregor+kratz/56085.html

Summary

Reinhard G. Kratz (b. 1957) studied Greek Philology and Theology at the Universities of Frankfurt a.M., Heidelberg in Germany, and Zürich in Switzerland.

He received his Dr. theol. 1987 and the Habilitation (venia legendi) for Old Testament/Hebrew Bible 1990, both at Zürich University.

After four years as Privatdozent and stipend of the Heisenberg grant he was 1995 appointed as full Professor at Georg-August-University Göttingen and 1999 elected as member of the Göttingen Academy for Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony.

He received several offers from other universities (1995 Kiel, Munich, 2003 Heidelberg, 2008 Berlin, 2014 Oxford) but decided to stay in Göttingen; since October 2025 as professor emeritus.

During his career, he was invited to several fellowships and visiting professorships in Berlin (Institute of Advanced Studies, 2002–03), Oxford (Fowler Hamilton Visiting Research Fellowship, Christ Church College, 2006–07), Cambridge (Overseas Visiting Scholar, St. John's College, 2014–15), and Jerusalem (Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Bible and Orion Center, Fellow of the Israeli Fund for the Advancement of the Humanities and Social Sciences supported by The Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2023).

He was Principal Investigator in the German-Israeli cooperation project Scripta Qumranica Electronica (https://sqe.deadseascrolls.org.il/) and several other projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is director of two currently ongoing long-term projects at the Göttingen Academy: Editio critica maior of the Greek Psalter (https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de) and Qumran Digital: Text and Lexicon (https://www.qumran-digital.org/).

His research interests are the textual and compositional history of the Hebrew Bible, especially the narrative books (Pentateuch and Former Prophets), prophecy in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible, and the formation of Judaism in Persian and Hellenistic times, with a special focus on Elephantine and Qumran.

Current post

Georg-August-University Göttingen Ordinary Professor, Theological Faculty, Department for Old Testament

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