Kerk en Theologie - Volume 74, Issue 3, 2023

‘Appointment under German rule?’: This article analyses the possibilities of the Old Testament scholar and orientalist Albertus Hendrik Edelkoort (1890-1956) to acquire an academic position. Time and again other candidates were appointed as professors. This article attempts to explain why. The early death of the Utrecht professor Johannes de Groot (1886-1942) offered a new opportunity. However, the German occupation policy made it very complicated to complete his nomination. In the end, he himself refused to be appointed. After the Second World War, the theological faculty of Utrecht University kept its promise to nominate him again. At the age of 55 he started his academic career – and was quite appreciated.

This article examines a conjectural emendation proposed by David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874) in the Greek text of Matthew 11:2 (about John the Baptist). Strauss expressed surprise that his opponents, both orthodox and rationalist scholars, had not themselves suggested this correction. Although Strauss ultimately did not endorse the conjecture, his treatment of the subject in the different editions and translations of Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet (1835–1840) sheds light on his interactions with his opponents and provides insight into the dynamics of a controversy during the early stages of critical research on the Life of Jesus.