Robert Hanhart
Robert Hanhart (6 July 1925 – 11 July 2025) was a Swiss Protestant theologian known for his work on the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. He spent much of his career at the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he was a professor of Old Testament and directed the Göttingen Septuagint Company, an institute of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities that produces critical editions of Septuagint texts.
Born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, Hanhart studied classical philology and classical history at the University of Basel and earned his doctorate in 1954. After a year working on a medieval Latin dictionary project, he moved to Göttingen to work as a research assistant at the Göttinger Septuaginta-Unternehmen. In 1959 he edited a Greek Septuagint edition of 2 Maccabees, building on Werner Kappler’s earlier work. He became head of the department in 1961.
Hanhart earned a theology doctorate from Göttingen in 1962 and completed his habilitation in 1965, editing the Book of Esther. This helped him become an adjunct professor in 1967 and a full professor in 1977. He retired as a professor in 1990 and as director of the Septuagint Company in 1993, though he continued working in the field. His later book Studien zur Septuaginta und zum hellenistischen Judentum appeared in 1999, and he contributed forewords, commentary, and editorial work on many projects. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki and the University of Bologna. Hanhart turned 100 in July 2025 and died five days after his birthday in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:51 (CET).