ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR DIE ALTTESTAMENTLICHE WISSENSCHAFT. — This is the most authoritative specialized German journal for Old Testament studies, founded by B. Stade (1848–1906), professor at Giessen, and published by the Ricker publishing house (later Töpelmann) in Giessen, and from 1934 by the Töpelmann publishing house in Berlin.
The journal has two periods: one extending to 1923, with B. Stade and K. Marti as editors, and the other from 1924 onward, under the direction of H. Gressmann and J. Hempel. During the war and the immediate postwar period, volumes 59 (1942–43), 60 (1944), 61 (1945–48), and 62 (1949–50) appeared; beginning with vol. 63 (1951), publication resumed its annual rhythm. It is accompanied by a series of «Beihefte»; it does not publish reviews. In the first period, B. Stade determined the character of the journal: one of WELLHAUSEN, JULIUS (v.), and also heir to the «rational-mystical» school (v. STRAUSS, D), he believed in a linear evolution of Old Testament religion (cf. Z.f.d.a.W., 4 [1884], p. 296 ff.) from a «rude natural religion» to the heights of «ethical monotheism». He was also an «orientalist», in the sense that he applied this term to the pre-cuneiform and pre-archaeological period. Under his successor K. Marti (1885–1925), the journal lost much of its prestige, although the editor managed to preserve it amid the difficulties of the First World War and inflation (1922–23), and even continued the current bibliography, which had already been compiled by Stade until 1903, by A. V. Gall from 1903 to 1906, and by Marti himself from 1907 to 1919. This bibliography in some way preceded the Elenchus bibliogr. biblicus, published in Biblica from 1920 onward.
H. Gressmann, author of a handbook of ancient Near Eastern texts illustrating the Bible, sought to introduce the new approaches into the journal, succeeding in restoring esteem to the periodical and securing the cooperation of the British «Society for Old Testament Study». His successor even obtained some Catholic cooperation (Allgeier, Stummer, J. Ziegler) and introduced careful summaries of journals and collections. In addition, the journal shows a lively interest in new excavations and discoveries.