Rochus Zuurmond (1930-2020) had been a minister in Wijckel, a village in Friesland in the Netherlands, when in 1967 he became the university pastor in Delft. In 1981 he succeeded Frans Breukelman as the lecturer in Hermeneutics at the theological faculty of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). It was a unique moment when, ten years later in 1991, he took up the position of professor of Biblical Theology. This was the first time in the Netherlands that an ecclesiastical professor was given the subject of Biblical Theology as his only and specific teaching assignment. Theology is the field in which the strands of exegesis, hermeneutics and dogmatics converge: ‘…the biblical theologian must single-handedly represent the “multidisciplinary approach”. That is the challenge and the charm of this discipline. (…) In the fragmentation of the “subjects”, each with its highly trained specialists, the biblical theologian tries to keep their unity in mind,’ says Zuurmond in his inaugural address.
Rochus Zuurmond was in his element in this integrative function. His knowledge was vast: he was up-to-date with the work on the Greek classics, early Judaism and the Church Fathers, up to and including twentieth-century philosophy. All these informed his theology. He became famous internationally for his work on the Ethiopian version of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. He is still regarded as the authority on the Ethiopian liturgical and biblical language, Ge’ez. His collection included about 150 copies of Ethiopian manuscripts from around the world for his analysis of the genesis of the Ethiopian New Testament. The photographic material and his archive are housed in collections in the United States, where they are being digitized and researched.
This profound knowledge of the genesis of the biblical text made him so familiar with the texts as they are, that he was extraordinarily sensitive to the specificity of the biblical voices. Therein lay Zuurmond’s passion: to articulate the meaning of the biblical texts for today. In the texts of the Bible – in all their diversity, in all their contradictions – there moves a powerful spirit. ‘The Power of the Word,’ is the evocative title of an article written in 1996. The word of the liberating God of the Bible is not to be appropriated, and it cannot be grasped, rather it is the other way round – we are captured, challenged, made to confront a new reality. And then also comforted which, according to Zuurmond, means: ‘a new path opens before us.’
A central aspect of Zuurmond’s thinking is that within theology the question of power must always be asked: who is pulling the strings? What are the interests? Which forces do we allow to guide our speech, thought and actions? And also: who or what do we call ‘God’? The latter must never be taken for granted. The word ‘God’ must be filled critically again and again from the liberating bible stories, otherwise God will all too quickly become an extension of our own standpoint. This approach made Zuurmond a socially engaged theologian. In 1974 for example, he was one of the founders of the Dutch branch of the society Christians for Socialism (CvS). He had a keen eye for social trends and was a proponent of a theology that does not take place on a neutral field but is fully integrated in the political and social context.
Among his many publications, Zuurmond’s book about the historical Jesus should not go unmentioned. In Verleden Tijd? (‘Times Past?’) he demonstrates that we know much less about the historical Jesus than is traditionally assumed and raises the question of what/who we are referring to when we talk about the ‘real’ Jesus. The ‘Jesus of the scriptures’ is the central figure in the New Testament, who, theologically speaking, should be the starting point for biblical reflection on who ‘God’ is. According to Zuurmond, the confession ‘Jesus, the son of God’ should be applied, not to the historical Jesus, but to the Jesus who is spoken of in the biblical text.
His books of recent years have been written for a broad audience: Niet te Geloven (‘Un-believable’) about the Apostles' Creed, In Hemelsnaam (‘For Heaven’s Sake’) on the Lord's Prayer and God en de Moraal (‘God and Ethics’) on the question of Christian ethics. In the latter book, Zuurmond makes it clear that the Bible is not about what is and is not allowed. The commandment is a ‘gift’, says Zuurmond. It’s a commitment and a promise, not a raised finger. Thereby he excludes all moralistic applications. The God who speaks here is showing his enslaved people the way to liberation.
The work of Rochus Zuurmond has not lost any of its power and relevance for us. There remains much for us to discover as we continue his explorations of biblical theology and exegesis.
Articles
Kein Platz in der Herberge, 1982
(Textual history and exegesis of Luke 2:7b)
Whoever has Ears to Hear, 1983
(Exegesis of and hermeneutical remarks on Mark 4:9-12)
Die Zehn Gebote, 1985
(Exegesis of Exod. 20 and remarks on the history of interpretation)
The Thora Again, 1994
(The meaning of the word ‘Tora’ in Hellenistic Judaism and the New Testament)
The Power of the Word, 1996
(Text, hermeneutics and the Word of God, article from the Festschrift for RZ)
The Structure of the Canon, 1999
(History and theological significance of the structure of the canon)