Hermann, Freiherr von Soden
From Textus Receptus
Baron Hermann von Soden (16 August 1852-15 January 1914), German biblical scholar, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 16, 1852, and was educated at the University of Tübingen. He was minister of Dresden-Striesen in 1881 and in 1887 became minister of the Jerusalem Church in Berlin. In 1889 he became privatdozent in the university of Berlin, and four years later was appointed extraordinary professor of divinity. He fought for a more democratic presbyterian constitution of the congregations within the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof II der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. II of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.
His earlier works include Philipperbrief (1890); 'Untersuchungen über neutestamentliche Schriften', In: Protestantisches Jahrbuch für theologische Studien und Schriftkommentar (1895-1897); Und was thut die evangelische Kirche? Erwogen angesichts der Reichstagswahlen, zumal in unseren Großstädten, 3rd. ed., Berlin: Nauck, 1890 (a pamphlet written during the campaign for the Reichstag election); Reisebriefe aus Palästina (2nd ed, 1901); Palästina und seine Geschichte: sechs volkstümliche Vorträge, 2nd improv. ed., Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner, 1904 (Aus Natur und Geisteswelt; No. 6); Die wichtigsten Fragen im Leben Jesu (1904); Urchristliche Literaturgeschichte: (die Schriften des Neuen Testaments), Berlin: Duncker, 1905. His most important book is Die Schriften des neuen Testaments, in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt / hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte: 4 vols., Berlin: Glaue, 1902-1910; certainly the most important work on the text of the New Testament which had been published since Westcott and Hort's New Testament in the original Greek.
Von Soden introduced, besides a new notation of manuscripts, a new theory of textual history. He believed that in the 4th century there were in existence three recensions of the text, which he distinguished as K, H and I.
His descendant Wolfram von Soden was a noted Assyriologist.
