Gerhard Kittel

1888-1948. German biblical scholar. Born in Breslau, youngest son of Rudolph Kittel,* he taught at Kiel and Leipzig before assuming the chair of NT at Griefswald in 1921. Five years later he took up a similar post at Tübingen and held it nominally until his death. Originally interested in rabbinical studies, Kittel in 1931 launched a major composite project-Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament-wherein he insisted that a lexicon of the NT must trace the history of each word with reference to its secular usage in classical and koine Greek as well as its religious connotations derived from the Septuagint and the Hebrew background. By World War II four massive volumes (A-N) had been completed. While Kittel held back from full Nazi demands to suppress Christianity, Das antike Weltjudentum (1943), written with Eugen Fischer, shows his propagandistic usefulness.