Ulrich Luz †

This extensive international commentary project on the New Testament has been co-edited by Prof. em. Dr. Ulrich Luz since 1995. A new series with new authors is planned to replace the older volumes. Luz is the author of the four volumes of the commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, which was supported by the National Fund at the time and has been translated in whole or in part into seven languages. The partial volumes are:

1. The Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 1-7), 5/2002
2. The Gospel according to Matthew II (Mt 8-17), 4//2007
3. The Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 8-17), 2/2011
4. The Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 26-28), 2002

The project is being carried out on behalf of the international New Testament Society "Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas" (SNTS) by an international commission (of which Prof. em. Dr. Ulrich Luz was chairman and member) in conjunction with the Biblisches Institut Bern and other universities. It comprises various sub-projects:

1. Since 1998, two centre libraries for Biblical Studies and Ancient Judaism have been established at Sofia University (Orthodox Theological Faculty) and St. Petersburg State University (Philological Faculty), with the aim of giving new impetus to Biblical Studies, which had been marginalised or completely suppressed during the communist era. At St. Petersburg State University, this initiative has led to the establishment of a Biblical Studies Institute with its own training programme.
2. Since 1998, "Eastern-Europe" New Testament congresses have been held in various Eastern European countries at three-year intervals with the aim of discussing central theological questions and networking Eastern European biblical scholars in their countries with each other and with Western institutions and strengthening ecumenical cooperation in the individual countries. The conference volumes were published by Verlag Mohr-Siebeck in Tübingen and partly in local languages. The sixth of these congresses took place in Belgrade in 2013.
3. In Romania, SNTS has contributed significantly to the establishment of a Biblical Centre at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, jointly supported by the Orthodox, Greek Catholic, (Hungarian-speaking) Roman Catholic and (Hungarian-speaking) Reformed theological faculties. This centre has its own library, publishes a biblical studies journal in international languages ("Sacra Scripta"), of which Prof. em. Dr Ulrich Luz was co-editor, and is planning an ecumenical commentary series on the New Testament in Romanian.
4. To support the academic teaching of biblical studies at Russian academic institutions, Prof. em. Dr Ulrich Luz, together with an international editorial board, published the book series "Bibliotheca Biblica" with translations of basic biblical studies literature into Russian in a Moscow publishing house.