Robert A. Kraft

Robert A. Kraft

Robert Kraft at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in 1992
Born 1934
Nationality American
Fields Early Christianity
Institutions University of Pennsylvania
Alma mater Wheaton College
Harvard University

Robert A. Kraft (born 1934) is Berg Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He is known for his pioneering work in the application of computing to the study of ancient literature (including the digitization and coding of ancient texts) and for his significant contributions to the study of early Judaism and early Christianity.

Life

In 1955, Kraft earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (in philosophy) and in 1957 a Master of Arts degree (in New Testament), both from Wheaton College. In 1961 he completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University in the History and Philosophy of Religion (Christian Origins). From 1961 to 1963, he was an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Manchester in England, and in 1963 Kraft came to the Department of Religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was made full professor in 1976 and Berg Chair in 1992. Kraft was also a visiting lecturer at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1965-1966.

Kraft is a member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS), the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) and the American Society of Papyrologists. He is also a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and served as its president in 2006. One of his most significant roles, however, was as co-founder and coordinator of the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins (PSCO), which he established upon coming to Penn in 1963.[1] He was also on the Bible Translation Commission(s) for the Revised Standard (RSV) and New Revised Standard (NRSV) Versions of the Bible.

Work

In his scholarship, Kraft has made contributions to study of the Apostolic Fathers, particularly the Epistle of Barnabas, as well as the history and literatures of Judaism in the Greco-Roman Period, particularly the Septuagint (LXX) and Old Greek (OG) translations and their textual histories, and also Philo of Alexandria and his world. Kraft has also produced significant work in manuscript studies (including Coptic texts), on so-called "Jewish Christianity" in antiquity, on the pseudepigrapha and on the Christian transmission of ancient Jewish writings. Under Kraft's leadership and co-editorship (with G. Krodel), the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins produced an English translation, with updated annotation, of Walter Bauer's classic Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum (published as Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christianity by Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1971).

Kraft is now semi-retired, and continues to conduct one graduate level seminar each term. He also continues to work on various scholarly projects as noted on his home page, especially the computerization of the textual variants for the ancient Jewish scriptures in Greek (as part of the CATSS project) and the digitization and description of the papyri and related documents in the Penn collections (as part of the APIS project). Also of special interest for Jewish Studies is his "New M. R. James" project, to update and expand the Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament (published in 1920), or as Kraft prefers to say, "Parabiblical Literature and Traditions of Early Judaism" and similar materials from early Christianity.

Select publications

Kraft's contribution to the study of religion in antiquity is voluminous. His publications include the following:

Kraft prefers to publish his works electronically, and many of his writings may be found on his homepage.

Festschriften

References

  1. ↑ The topic of the Seminar for 2012-2013 was "PSCO at Fifty: Christian Origins in Retrospect and Prospect" and included an oral history and discussions of the future of the study of Christian origins, see Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins: A Brief History and Oral History.
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