Rudolf Steck

Johann Rudolf Julius Steck (18 January 1842 – 30 November 1924) was a Swiss reformed theologian and writer.

Steck was a pastor of the Reformed Church, Dresden (1867-1881). From 1881 to 1921 he was Professor of Theology at the University of Bern. He was influenced by the writings of Bruno Bauer and was a proponent of the Christ myth theory.^[1]^[2] He believed that the Pauline epistles were a case of second century pseudepigrapha.^[3]

Steck argued that the Pauline letters were written by a school of people.^[4]^[5]

Selected publications

Der Galaterbrief nach seiner Echtheit untersucht nebst kritischen Bemerkungen zu den Paulinischen Hauptbriefen (1888) [Inquiry into the Genuineness of the Galatians Epistle, and Critical Remarks on the Chief Paulines]

^ O'Neill, J. C. (1991). The Bible's Authority: A Portrait Gallery of Thinkers from Lessing to Bultmann. Clark. p. 164
^ Smart, Ninian. (1985). Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought in the West: Volume III. Cambridge University Press. p. 169. ISBN 0-521-30114-9
^ Chalamet, Christophe. (2005). Dialectical Theologians: Wilhelm Herrmann, Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann. Theologische Verlag Zürich. p. 23. ISBN 3-290-17324-0
^ Burton, Ernest DeWitt. (1988 edition). A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. T & T Clark International. p. 70. ISBN 0-567-05029-7 "Rudolf Steck, in Der Galaterbrief nach seiner Echtheit untersucht, Berlin, 1888, maintains the historicity of the apostle Paul, but holds that like Jesus he wrote nothing. The four principal letters ascribed to Paul he maintains to have been written in the order: Romans, I Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, by the Pauline School, the last being based upon the earlier ones."
^ Prior, Michael. (1995). Jesus the Liberator: Nazareth Liberation Theology (Luke 4.16-30). Sheffield Academic Press. p. 42. "Rudolf Steck declared Loman to be correct. 'We shall have to get used to the idea that no Apostle wrote anything, any more than Jesus himself did.' The Pauline Letters were written by a school. He concluded that the report in Acts is the fundamental datum for the historical situation."