Walther Eichrodt, an eminent German biblical scholar, was born in Gernsbach, Baden. After his introduction into theological studies at the seminary in Bethel, Eichrodt continued his training at the Universities of Griefswald and Heidelberg. He taught for a brief period at the University of Erlangen (1918-21). A 40-year career then ensued at the University of Basel, Switzerland (1921-61), where Eichrodt was designated professor of Old Testament and the history of religion in 1934. Moreover, from 1953 he was rector of the theological faculty at Basel. Eichrodt's wide-ranging publications include a dissertation on the priestly stratum in Genesis and commentaries on Ezekiel and Isaiah, as well as studies in eschatology, anthropology, and the history of Israelite religion. As a pioneer in what is known as the biblical theology movement, Eichrodt devoted his major effort to writing a monumental three-volume Theology of the Old Testament, which appeared in 1933, 1935, and 1939 (the two-volume English translation was published in 1961 and 1967). It is a magisterial, though controversial, integration of historically diverse biblical ideas about God, humanity, and the world under the quasi-comprehensive category of the covenant relationship binding Yahweh, the God of Israel, and Israel, the people of Yahweh. It is written on the supposition that, whereas Old Testament theology is admittedly a normative and not a simply descriptive undertaking, it is driven by scientific rather than confessional concerns. Moreover, as he crafts his exposition, Eichrodt remains in touch with biblical Israel's Near Eastern environment and the later New Testament, on the one hand, and Old Testament belief in its distinctive structural unity, on the other.
