Gerhard von Rad

Oral tradition and the Pentateuch Cover of the 1972 German edition of von Rad's Commentary on Genesis, highly regarded among religious scholars as "one of the finest examples of theological interpretation of the Old Testament which has been produced during the period following the Second World War".

Along with German biblical scholar Martin Noth, Gerhard von Rad applied form criticism, originated by Hermann Gunkel, to the documentary hypothesis.

Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism led to an "anti-Old Testament" bias among German scholars. Disturbed by this, von Rad turned to the study of the Old Testament and gradually started to bring back its message.

His lively papers achieved a renewal of interest and research in Old Testament studies. Along with Martin Noth, he applied research into the Pentateuch's oral tradition to the explanation of its origin. about von Rad as: Prof. Premasagar concludes by saying that Henning Graf Reventlow of Ruhr University, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany in introducing a book by von Rad, makes the following observations: Gerhard Hasel of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary of Andrews University, Michigan, United States in writing about the approaches to OT studies, mentions von Rad with the words...., John H. Hayes, Professor at Candler School of Theology of the Emory University in Atlanta, United States writes about von Rad... G. Henton Davies, past Principal, Regent's Park College, a Permanent Private Hall of Oxford University, Oxford, England, writes about von Rad thus