Casper Labuschagne

Casper Jeremiah Labuschagne (4 April 1929 – 5 October 2019), often known as Cas Labuschagne, was a South African-born theologian, Hebrew Bible scholar and minister who spent most of his academic career at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His research focused on the Old Testament, particularly the Book of Deuteronomy and the literary and numerical structures of biblical texts.

Labuschagne was also an outspoken opponent of apartheid and of its theological justification by white Afrikaans churches. His support for the dissident theologians Albert Geyser and Adrianus van Selms brought him into conflict with the leadership of the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa. He left the denomination and South Africa in 1967. Shortly before his death, the church formally acknowledged the mistreatment of Labuschagne and other theological dissidents of the 1960s.

Early life and education

Labuschagne was born on 4 April 1929 on a farm near Heilbron in the Orange Free State. He was the only son in a family of seven children. His father expected him eventually to take over the family farm, while his mother wished him to enter the ministry.

Ministry and academic career in South Africa

At the end of 1956, Labuschagne returned to South Africa and became minister of the Netherdutch Reformed congregation at Wolmaransstad. In February 1959 he was appointed junior lecturer in Semitic languages at the University of Pretoria. The church also appointed him to teach biblical studies at the Pretoria teachers' training college.

In 1962, during the controversy surrounding the church's prosecution of Geyser for heresy, the Netherdutch Reformed Church abruptly terminated Labuschagne's Bible-teaching appointment. Contemporary press reports attributed the decision to his support for Geyser and Van Selms and to his criticism of apartheid. Church authorities maintained that the termination resulted from changes to the theological curriculum.

In 1994, Brill published the festschrift Studies in Deuteronomy: In Honour of C. J. Labuschagne on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Edited by Florentino García Martínez, Antonius Hilhorst, Jacques van Ruiten and Adam van der Woude, the volume reflected Labuschagne's contribution to scholarship on Deuteronomy.

Labuschagne also wrote several Dutch-language books intended to make the findings of critical biblical scholarship accessible to a general readership. These included Wat zegt de Bijbel in Gods naam? (1977), Gods oude plakboek (1978), Zin en onzin over God (1994) and Zin en onzin rond de Bijbel (2000).

He distinguished his approach from attempts to discover predictive or cryptographic "Bible codes", describing it instead as a form of quantitative literary analysis. He applied the method to Deuteronomy, the Psalms and eventually all the books of the Hebrew Bible. His principal general introduction to the subject, Vertellen met getallen (1992), was substantially revised in English as Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Rediscovering the Bible Codes (2000). A later edition was published under the subtitle Introduction to Biblical Arithmology.

Selected works

A complete bibliography of Labuschagne's publications was deposited in the University of Groningen research portal in 2016.

The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament (1966) Syntax and Meaning: Studies in Hebrew Syntax and Biblical Exegesis (editor, with A. S. van der Woude, 1973) Wat zegt de Bijbel in Gods naam? Nieuwe bijbeluitleg en modern godsgeloof (1977) Gods oude plakboek: Visie op het Oude Testament (1978) Deuteronomium, four volumes (1987–1997) Vertellen met getallen: Functie en symboliek van getallen in de bijbelse oudheid (1992) Zin en onzin over God: Een kritische beschouwing van gangbare godsvoorstellingen (1994) Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Rediscovering the Bible Codes (2000) Zin en onzin rond de Bijbel: Bijbelgeloof, bijbelwetenschap en bijbelgebruik (2000)