Kümmel was the son of the Heidelberg doctor Werner Kümmel and his first wife Marie (a daughter of the historian Heinrich Ulmann). He was a grandson of the civil engineer Werner Kümmel and a nephew of the art historian
Otto Kümmel, as well as a great-grandson of the physician
Jacob Henle through his mother.
From 1923 to 1928 he studied Protestant theology in Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg, graduating in Heidelberg. He wrote his dissertation on Romans 7 in 1928, under the supervision of
Martin Dibelius. He then worked at universities in England, followed by Marburg (1930-1932), where he was assistant to
Hans von Soden, Zurich (1932-1950), Mainz (1951/1952) and Marburg again (1952-1973). At Marburg he succeeded
Rudolf Bultmann, and worked until his retirement in 1973 as a New Testament scholar.
Kümmel undertook the editing of Jewish writings from Hellenistic-Roman times. His Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Introduction to the New Testament) was influential, and competed with the conservatism of Wilhelm Michaelis and the Catholic perspective of Alfred Wikenhauser in their works of the same title.
The Bonn New Testament scholar
Erich Gräßer was a student of Kümmel's.
Works
Thesis
Kümmel, Werner Georg (1929). Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus (Thesis). München: C. Kaiser.
ISBN9783459008933.
OCLC721284094.
Books
——— (1943). Kirchenbegriff und Geschichtsbewußtsein in der Urgemeinde und bei Jesus. Symbolae biblicae Upsalienses. Vol. 1. Zürich: Uppsala.
OCLC882484040.
——— (1945). Verheißung und Erfüllung: Untersuchungen zur eschatologischen Verkündigung Jesu (trans. as Promise and Fulfillment: the eschatological message of Jesus). Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Vol. 6. Basel: Majer.
OCLC883120857. - (trans. pub. by London: SCM Press, 1956)
——— (1948). Bild des Menschen im Neuen Testament (trans. as Man in the New Testament). Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Vol. 13. Zürich: Zwingli-Verlag.
OCLC186253335. - (trans. pub. by London: Epworth, 1961)).
——— (1958). Das Neue Testament: Geschichte der Erforschung seiner Probleme (trans. as The New Testament: the history of the investigation of its problems). Orbis academicus Band III/3. Freiburg / München: Verlag Karl Alber.
OCLC163719628. - (trans. pub. by London: SCM Press, 1972)
——— (1965). Gräßer, Erich; Merk, Otto; Fritz, Adolf (eds.). Heilsgeschehen und Geschichte: Gesammelte Aufsätze 1933–1964. Marburger Theologische Studien. Vol. 3. Marburg: N. G. Elwert.
OCLC24839201.
——— (1969). Die Theologie des Neuen Testaments nach seinen Hauptzeugen: Jesus, Paulus, Johannes (trans. as The Theology of the New Testament according to its major witnesses: Jesus - Paul - John). Grundrisse zum Neuen Testament. Vol. 3. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
OCLC495551082. - (trans. pub. by London: SCM Press, 1972)
——— (1970). Das Neue Testament im 20: Jahrhundert; Ein Forschungsbericht. Stuttgarter Bibelstudien. Vol. 50. Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk.
ISBN9783460035010.
OCLC310457.
——— (1973). Einleitung in das Neue Testament (trans. as Introduction to the New Testament) (17 ed.). Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer. - (It is a complete revision of Paul Feine and Johannes Behm's book, first published in 1918; from 1973 on will it have Kümmel's name as its main author) (trans. by Howard Clark Kee in 1993 as Introduction to the New Testament, Nashville: Abingdon Press)
——— (1974). Jesu Antwort an Johannes den Täufer. Ein Beispiel zum Methodenproblem in der Jesusforschung. Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Vol. 11, 4. Wiesbaden.
ISBN9783515019378.
OCLC780662711.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
——— (1978). Gräßer, Erich; Merk, Otto (eds.). Heilsgeschehen und Geschichte: Gesammelte Aufsätze 1965-1977. Marburger theologische Studien. Vol. 16. Marburg: N. G. Elwert.
OCLC24839201.
——— (1984). Jesus der Menschensohn?. Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Gœthe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Vol. 20, 3. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner.
ISBN9783515042260.
OCLC461906198.
——— (1985). Merklein, Helmut (ed.). Dreißig Jahre Jesusforschung (1950–1980). Bonner biblische Beiträge. Vol. 60. Königstein/Ts.: P. Hanstein.
ISBN9783775610742.
OCLC14091441.
——— (1994). Merklein, Helmut (ed.). Vierzig Jahre Jesusforschung (1950–1990). Bonner biblische Beiträge. Vol. 91. Weinheim: Beltz Athenäum.
ISBN9783895470110.
OCLC231625036.
Chapters
——— (1985). "L'exégèse scientifique au XXe siècle: Le Nouveau Testament". In Savart, C.; Aletti, J. N. (eds.). Le Monde Contemorain et la Bible. BTT. Vol. 8. Paris: Beauchesne. pp. 473–515.
ISBN9782701029115.
References
^*
Otto Böcher: Zum Gedenken an Werner Georg Kümmel. In: Theologische Literaturzeitung (ThLZ) 120, 1995,
ISSN0040-5671, Sp. 945