VOLZ, PAUL°

VOLZ, PAUL° (1871–1941), German Bible scholar. Born in Lichtenstern (Wuerttemberg), Volz was professor in Tuebingen from 1909. He wrote a comprehensive exposition of Jewish eschatology, which in opposition to the religio-historical school, he considered as genuinely "biblical-Israelite" (Juedische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba, 1903; second edition: Die Eschatologie der juedischen Gemeinde im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, 1934). In his work Mose, Ein Beitrag zur Untersuchung ueber die Urspruenge der israelitischen Religion (1907), Volz concludes from the post-mosaic pre-prophetic religion that Moses was the founder of a YHWH League; in the second edition (Mose und sein Werk, 1932) he regards Moses as the founder of the people and the Decalogue as his authentic program. He anticipated S. Mowinckel's explanation of the Festival of Tabernacles as a New Year Festival of YHWH, in analogy with the Babylonian New Year Festival (Das Neujahrfest Jahwes, 1912). With his disciple W. Rudolph, Volz opposed the prevailing theory of the Pentateuch in that he contested the existence of the Elohist source (Der Elohist als Erzaehler, 1933). Another well-known work by Volz is Der Prophet Jeremia (1922, 19282). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Weiser, in: Deutsche Theologie (1941), 79–89. (Rudolf Smend)