Werner Kümmel

Werner Georg Kümmel (Heidelberg 16 May 1905 - Mainz 9 July 1995) was a German New Testament scholar and professor at the University of Marburg.

Biography

Kümmel was the son of the Heidelberg specialist doctor Werner Kümmel and of his first wife Marie (a daughter of Heinrich Ulmann) and grandson of the civil engineer Werner Kümmel and a nephew of the art historian Otto Kümmel. He was also a great-grandson of Jacob Henle through his mother.

From 1923 to 1928 he studied Protestant Theology in Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg, graduating in Heidelberg. His dissertation on Romans 7, he wrote in 1928 with Martin Dibelius. He then worked at universities in England, followed by Marburg (1930-1932), where he was assistant to Hans von Soden. Then moving to Zurich (1932-1950), Mainz (1951/1952) and Marburg (1952-1973). In Marburg he became the successor of Rudolf Bultmann and worked until his retirement in 1973 as a New Testament scholar. Kümmel took over the editorship of Jewish writings from Hellenistic-Roman times. Very influential was his Introduction to the New Testament, which competed with the conservatives of Wilhelm Michaelis and the Catholic von Alfred Wikenhauser.

A student of Kümmel is the Bonn New Testament scholar Erich Gräßer.

Works

Books

• - (previous editions were by Paul Feine and Johannes Behm) (trans. pub. by Nashville: Parthenon Press, 1963)
• - (trans. pub. by London: SCM Press, 1956)
• - (trans. pub. by London: Epworth, 1961)).
• - (trans. pub. by London: SCM Press, 1972)
• - (trans. pub. by London: SCM Press, 1972)