Joachim Begrich was a German theologian born in Predel, a hamlet now belonging to Elsteraue

Elsteraue

Elsteraue is a municipality in the Burgenlandkreis district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated near the river Weiße Elster, approx. 30 km southwest of Leipzig....

. He was the son-in-law of Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

 scholar Hermann Gunkel

Hermann Gunkel

Hermann Gunkel was a German Protestant Old Testament scholar. He is noted for his contribution to form criticism and the study of oral tradition in biblical texts. He was an outstanding representative of the "History of Religion School."...

 (1862-1932).

He studied philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

, Assyriology

Assyriology

Assyriology is the archaeological, historical, and linguistic study of ancient Mesopotamia and the related cultures that used cuneiform writing. The field covers the Akkadian sister-cultures of Assyria and Babylonia, together with their cultural predecessor; Sumer...

 and theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

, then transferred to Halle, where he focused his studies on theology. In 1923/24 he attended the seminary

Seminary

A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...

 in Stettin

Szczecin

Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....

, earning his doctorate at Halle in 1926. In 1930 he was appointed associate professor of Old Testament studies at the University of Leipzig. During World War II he served as a paramedic, and lost his life in Dussoi, Italy less than two weeks prior to the end of hostilities in Europe.

Begrich was the author of a scholarly work on the chronology

Chronology

Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...

 of the kings of Israel and Judah called Die Chronologie der Konige von Israel und Juda (1929), and a book involving the "Deutero-Isaiah" titled Studien zu Deuterojesaja (1938). He also assisted Hermann Gunkel with the latter's Einleitung in die Psalmen (Introduction to the Psalms

Psalms

The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

).