Casper Labuschagne

Casper Labuschagne
Born	Casper Jeremiah Labuschagne (1929-04-04)4 April 1929 Heilbron, Orange Free State, Union of South Africa
Died	5 October 2019(2019-10-05) (aged 90) Haren, Netherlands
Academic background
Education	University of Pretoria University of Groningen
Thesis	Die onvergelyklikheid van Jahwe in die Ou Testament (1962)
Doctoral advisor	E. S. Mulder
Academic work
Discipline	Biblical studies
Sub-discipline	Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, Semitic languages
Institutions	University of Pretoria University of Groningen

Casper Jeremiah Labuschagne (4 April 1929 – 5 October 2019), often known as Cas Labuschagne, was a South African-born theologian, Hebrew Bible scholar and minister who spent most of his academic career at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His research focused on the Old Testament, particularly the Book of Deuteronomy and the literary and numerical structures of biblical texts.

Labuschagne was also an outspoken opponent of apartheid and of its theological justification by white Afrikaans churches. His support for the dissident theologians Albert Geyser and Adrianus van Selms brought him into conflict with the leadership of the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa. He left the denomination and South Africa in 1967. Shortly before his death, the church formally acknowledged the mistreatment of Labuschagne and other theological dissidents of the 1960s.

Early life and education

Labuschagne was born on 4 April 1929 on a farm near Heilbron in the Orange Free State. He was the only son in a family of seven children. His father expected him eventually to take over the family farm, while his mother wished him to enter the ministry.

While Labuschagne was at school, Albert Geyser served as a minister in Heilbron. Geyser encouraged him to study theology and remained an important influence on his religious and political development.

Labuschagne enrolled at the University of Pretoria in 1947. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude, majoring in Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and subsequently studied theology in the university's Faculty of Theology. He completed a Bachelor of Divinity degree and was licensed for ministry in the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa in 1952.

In 1953 he travelled to the Netherlands with a scholarship from the Nederlands Zuid-Afrikaanse Vereniging and undertook postgraduate study at the University of Groningen. His studies included Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian and Ugaritic. After returning to South Africa, he completed a master's degree in Semitic languages at the University of Pretoria in 1959.

In March 1962 Labuschagne received a Doctor of Divinity degree cum laude from the University of Pretoria. His dissertation, supervised by E. S. Mulder, was titled Die onvergelyklikheid van Jahwe in die Ou Testament ("The incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament"). A revised English translation was published by Brill in 1966 as The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament.

Ministry and academic career in South Africa

At the end of 1956, Labuschagne returned to South Africa and became minister of the Netherdutch Reformed congregation at Wolmaransstad. In February 1959 he was appointed junior lecturer in Semitic languages at the University of Pretoria. The church also appointed him to teach biblical studies at the Pretoria teachers' training college.

Labuschagne became associated with a group of Afrikaans theologians who challenged the biblical and theological arguments used to support apartheid. The group included Geyser, Van Selms, Beyers Naudé and Ben Marais. Labuschagne's opposition to apartheid intensified after the Sharpeville massacre and the controversies surrounding the 1960 Cottesloe Consultation.

In 1962, during the controversy surrounding the church's prosecution of Geyser for heresy, the Netherdutch Reformed Church abruptly terminated Labuschagne's Bible-teaching appointment. Contemporary press reports attributed the decision to his support for Geyser and Van Selms and to his criticism of apartheid. Church authorities maintained that the termination resulted from changes to the theological curriculum. Labuschagne's separate appointment in the University of Pretoria's Department of Semitic Languages continued, and he was promoted to senior lecturer.

Labuschagne later gave evidence on behalf of Geyser and Naudé in their successful defamation proceedings against theologian Adriaan Pont. In June 1967, amid continuing conflict with the church leadership, Labuschagne resigned from the Netherdutch Reformed Church. He subsequently conducted services for an Afrikaans-speaking congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa.

University of Groningen

Labuschagne moved to the Netherlands in 1967 and began work at the University of Groningen on 1 December that year. He initially served as a lecturer and was later appointed professor in Old Israelite literature and Old Testament exegesis. He remained at Groningen until his retirement in 1991.

His scholarship included research on Hebrew syntax, the theology of the divine name, the composition of Deuteronomy and the literary structure of biblical poetry. Deuteronomy became a major focus of his work, including a four-volume Dutch commentary published in the series Prediking van het Oude Testament between 1987 and 1997.

In 1994, Brill published the festschrift Studies in Deuteronomy: In Honour of C. J. Labuschagne on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Edited by Florentino García Martínez, Antonius Hilhorst, Jacques van Ruiten and Adam van der Woude, the volume reflected Labuschagne's contribution to scholarship on Deuteronomy.

Labuschagne also wrote several Dutch-language books intended to make the findings of critical biblical scholarship accessible to a general readership. These included Wat zegt de Bijbel in Gods naam? (1977), Gods oude plakboek (1978), Zin en onzin over God (1994) and Zin en onzin rond de Bijbel (2000).

Logotechnical analysis

In the later part of his career, Labuschagne developed an approach that he called "logotechnical analysis". It examined quantitative features of Hebrew biblical texts, including word counts, structural centres, recurring numerical patterns and the placement of divine names. Labuschagne argued that biblical writers and scribes had deliberately used symbolic numbers—including 7, 11, 17 and 26—as organising principles in the composition of texts.

He distinguished his approach from attempts to discover predictive or cryptographic "Bible codes", describing it instead as a form of quantitative literary analysis. He applied the method to Deuteronomy, the Psalms and eventually all the books of the Hebrew Bible. His principal general introduction to the subject, Vertellen met getallen (1992), was substantially revised in English as Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Rediscovering the Bible Codes (2000). A later edition was published under the subtitle Introduction to Biblical Arithmology.

Reconciliation with the church

Beginning in 2008, representatives of the Netherdutch Reformed Church sought to re-establish contact with Labuschagne. He maintained that personal reconciliation would be insufficient without an institutional acknowledgement of the church's treatment of Geyser and other opponents of apartheid. He called for a public repudiation of the church's former theological support for apartheid and for the rehabilitation of the dissident theologians of the 1960s.

The church formally rejected its previous theological justification of apartheid at its General Church Assembly in 2010. Labuschagne's personal case nevertheless remained unresolved for several more years. In March 2019, the Commission of the General Church Assembly sent him a detailed letter acknowledging the treatment of the dissidents and the church's responsibility for its past conduct. On 3 April 2019, the day before his 90th birthday, Labuschagne replied that he regarded the acknowledgement as sufficient to close that chapter of his life and that he accepted reconciliation with the church.

Labuschagne died at Haren, near Groningen, on 5 October 2019. His funeral notice described him as a former senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria, professor emeritus of Old Testament at the University of Groningen, former Netherdutch Reformed minister rehabilitated in 2019, and emeritus minister in the Presbyterian and Dutch Protestant churches.

Archive

After Labuschagne's death, his children transferred his papers to the University of Groningen Library. The C. J. Labuschagne collection covers the period from 1947 to 2012 and comprises approximately seven metres of material. It includes correspondence, lecture notes, diaries, sermons, personal papers, recordings and newspaper clippings.

The collection also contains correspondence and documentation concerning apartheid and the Netherdutch Reformed Church, as well as scrapbooks recording the anti-apartheid controversies in which Labuschagne was involved between 1961 and 1968.

Selected works

A complete bibliography of Labuschagne's publications was deposited in the University of Groningen research portal in 2016.

• The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament (1966)
• Syntax and Meaning: Studies in Hebrew Syntax and Biblical Exegesis (editor, with A. S. van der Woude, 1973)
• Wat zegt de Bijbel in Gods naam? Nieuwe bijbeluitleg en modern godsgeloof (1977)
• Gods oude plakboek: Visie op het Oude Testament (1978)
• Deuteronomium, four volumes (1987–1997)
• Vertellen met getallen: Functie en symboliek van getallen in de bijbelse oudheid (1992)
• Zin en onzin over God: Een kritische beschouwing van gangbare godsvoorstellingen (1994)
• Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Rediscovering the Bible Codes (2000)
• Zin en onzin rond de Bijbel: Bijbelgeloof, bijbelwetenschap en bijbelgebruik (2000)

See also

• Albert Geyser
• Beyers Naudé
• Christian Institute of Southern Africa
• Cottesloe Consultation
• Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa

Further reading

• García Martínez, Florentino; Hilhorst, Antonius; van Ruiten, Jacques T. A. G. M.; van der Woude, Adam S., eds. (1994). Studies in Deuteronomy: In Honour of C. J. Labuschagne on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum. Vol. 53. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10052-7.
• Ungerer, André G. (2023). "Eerherstel aan Cas Labuschagne – Goed genoeg, betyds genoeg?" [Rehabilitation for Cas Labuschagne: Good enough, timely enough?]. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies (in Afrikaans). 79 (1): a8877. doi:10.4102/hts.v79i1.8877. hdl:2263/96966.

External links

• Casper Labuschagne's website
• C. J. Labuschagne archive at the University of Groningen Library
• Complete bibliography at the University of Groningen