Michael Lattke

Michael Stephan Lattke (born 12 May 1942, died 19 February 2023, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) was a scholar of the New Testament and early Christianity.

Lattke was born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin in Poland). He was brought up in Solingen and, after attending the Volksschule Wittkuller Straße and Humboldt-Gymnasium before completing his Abitur at Gymnasium Schwertstraße, studied at Bonn, Tübingen, Münster, Augsburg and München. In spite of his Roman Catholic background, at Tübingen he also studied Protestant theology, especially under the leading Protestant New Testament scholar Ernst Käsemann. He received the Dipl.-Theol. from Tübingen in 1968, the Dr. theol. from Freiburg in 1974, and the Dr. theol. habil. from Augsburg in 1979.

In 1981 Lattke settled in Brisbane, Australia and began teaching at The University of Queensland, where he also received a D.Litt. in 1992. In 1994 he became professor of New Testament and Early Christianity Studies, and in 1997 he became a senior research fellow of the Australian Research Council. In October 2007, he became emeritus professor at The University of Queensland.

Lattke has published widely on the New Testament, early Christianity, early Judaism, early Christian hymns, and Gnosticism, and he has established himself as the world's foremost authority on the pseudepigraphical Odes of Solomon. In his comprehensive study of the Odes of Solomon, he has argued that the Odes were written originally in Greek. His commentary on the Odes has been translated into English by Marianne Ehrhardt for the Hermeneia series (published 2009 by Fortress Press). He also wrote a commentary on the Apology of Aristides for the series "Kommentar zu frühchristlichen Apologeten" (published by Herder Verlag).

In 2001 the Australian Government awarded Lattke a Centenary Medal for his contribution to the field of early Christian studies. In 2007 he was presented with the Festschrift, I Sowed Fruits into Hearts (Odes Sol. 17:13): Festschrift for Professor Michael Lattke, edited by Pauline Allen, Majella Franzmann and Rick Strelan (Strathfield: St Pauls, 2007).

Lattke was a member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS), a life member of the Society for the Study of Early Christianity (SSEC), and an Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Early Christian Studies at the Australian Catholic University (ACU). The University of Queensland has offered the Michael Lattke Studies in Religion Scholarship since 2020.