RIESSLER, PAUL. - Catholic exegete, b. 16 Sept. 1865 in Stuttgart, in 1898 parish priest at Blaubeuren, from 1907 to 1933 professor of the Old Testament at the University of Tübingen, d. there 10 Sept. 1935.
He was distinguished for the stylistic qualities of his version of the Old Testament. His favorite study was textual criticism, in which he elaborated an original theory, but one not accepted by exegetes, according to which the most ancient texts of the Old Testament would have been written on Accadian cuneiform tablets, with some Aramaic "note"; after the exile these tablets would have been translated by Ezra into Aramaic, and more recent books would have been added in Aramaic. After 300 B.C. those books would have been translated into Greek (the so-called "proto-Septuagint"); in the national renewal inaugurated by the Maccabees, during the years of Hyrcanus (135-105 B.C.), they would have been retranslated into the sacred dialect of the Temple of Jerusalem, that is, classical Hebrew; from that translation the Septuagint (v.) would have emanated. This hazardous theory explains what in R.'s versions may seem arbitrary.
His works are rich in Hebraistic erudition: Das Buch Daniel. Textkrit. Untersuchung (Stuttgart 1899); Das Buch Daniel erklärt (Vienna 1902); Kleine Propheten... (Rottenburg 1911); Der Untergang des Reiches Juda (Münster 1912); Der Prophet Jeremias (ibid. 1914); Die hl. Schrift des Alten Bundes (Mainz 1924) ff.; 4th ed. [in collaboration with R. Storr who translated the New Testament]. 1934); Altjüdisches Schrifttum ausserhalb der Bibel (Augsburg 1928); Erklärung von Textschwierigkeiten des Alten Test., ed. F. Stier, Mainz 1939.
Bibliography
Pietro Nober