Joachim Begrich (13 June 1900 - 26 April 1945) was a German biblical scholar and theologian born in Predel, a hamlet now belonging to Elsteraue in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. He was the son of a pastor and the son-in-law of Old Testament scholar Hermann Gunkel (1862–1932).[1]
He studied philology, Assyriology and theology at the University of Leipzig, then transferred to Halle, where he focused his studies on theology. In 1923/24 he attended the seminary in Stettin, earning his doctorate at Halle in 1926.[2] In 1930 he was appointed associate professor of Old Testament studies at the University of Leipzig.[3] During World War II he served as a paramedic, and lost his life in Dussoi, near Belluno, Italy less than two weeks prior to the end of hostilities in Europe.[2]
Begrich was the author of a scholarly work on the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah called Die Chronologie der Könige von Israel und Juda (1929),[2] and a book on "Deutero-Isaiah" titled Studien zu Deuterojesaja (1938). He also assisted Hermann Gunkel with the latter's Einleitung in die Psalmen, later translated into English and published with the title Introduction to Psalms : the genres of the religious lyric of Israel. Two of his most memorable essays are on the priestly oracle of salvation/deliverance and the priestly Torah; these appear in his Gesammelte Studien.