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FOREWORD
EDGARS JUNDZIS - 1 0 0

Rev. Edgars Jundzis, Dr.theol.

19 January 1 9 0 7 - 2 1 October 1986

Being in almost total isolation from the exchange of thoughts and the
formation of new concepts that were taking place in theology and religious
research elsewhere in the world, Christian theology in Latvia did continue to
develop even under the conditions of the Communist regime; and, research
authorships did appear, which, if they were written in the West, could become
a sensation or at least an object of serious scientific discussion.
Although these writings were not hidden in deep drawers and authors
did dare to publish them, only a few people in Latvia were aware of their
existence; and, therefore, we can consider these as belonging to the silenced
literature." One such work is the 1980 doctoral dissertation, "The Life of Jesus
Based on the Foundation of the Synoptic and Johannine Tradition" by Edgars
Jundzis, which offers an untraditional, and as considered by Jundzis himself
revolutionary version about Jesus' life and his activities.
The fate of E. Jundzis' dissertation, in our opinion, obviously points to
the fact that, even under occupation conditions, a Christian theologian was
capable of preserving his dignity, beliefs and world viewpoint, and that scientific interest is not barred by political or other obstacles, and moreoverthat
occupation in our minds, unfortunately, does not end with the liquidation of
the political occupation.
Edgars Jundzis was born on 19 January 1907, in the "Kalnmicii"
homestead in reme in Omuu County of Valka District. He obtained his basie education in 1914-1919 at the Omuu Elementary School, followed by the
State Secondary School for Adults in Riga, completing it in June 1925. In the

fall of that same year1, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Theology, University
of Latvia, graduating from it in the spring of 1929. Professor Haralds Biezais
remembered that, during 1927-1928, Jundzis wrote a prize-winning essay2
about Albert Schvveitzer's radically eschatological hypothesis concerning the
life of Jesus, which was also accepted as his graduation thesis3 in 1929. On
9 November 1929, at the Riga Old ertrde Church, he received holy blessings from Bishop K. Irbe and was ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, becoming a vicar for the Riga congregations. In 1930, he
worked at the Jelgava Classical Secondary School; from 1931 to 1940, he was
the minister of the Estonian Valka St. John's Church and founded the Latvian
Secondary School in Estonian Valka, working there as the principal. Jundzis
also continued his scientific research, and in 1932, he successfully defends his
Candidate's thesis, "Charismatcs in the Pre-Christian Church in Relation to
St. Paul's Theology."4 In 1936, he is retained at the University to prepare for
scientific research, and during 1937-1938, as a recipient of a scholarship from
the University of Latvia, he furthered his theological education at the Basel
and Zurich universities5 in Switzerland.
From 1940 to 1944, E. Jundzis was a teacher in Riga at the French Lyceum and Rainis Evening Secondary School and performed the functions of a
pastor at the Estonian St. Peter's - St. Paul's Church. Jundzis met the end of
the war at the Piltene Congregation.
In June 1944, under the leadership of Archbishop Irbe, there was a gathering of 16 representatives from different Protestant denominations at the Consistory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The objective of the meeting was
1
This dat is mentioned in the Curriculum Vitae written by E. Jundzis himself, which includes information through 1956. The 1987 necro!ogy, however, nots the year 1926.
2
E. Jundzis received the 2nd prize for his work "Albert Schvveitzer's Eschatological Viewpoint Concerning the Life of Jesus" which was completed in 1927-1928. This fact is noted in a book entitled:
Latvijas Universitte divdesmit gados, 1919-1939. II daa [University of Latvia in Twenty Years,
1919-1939. Part II]. Riga: University of Latvia, 1939, page 68.
3

n<

This fact is fixed in the book, Latvijas Universittes Teoloijas fakultte - 1919-1939, 2 ^ Edition, vvith additions by E . iploks, Teoloijas fakultte 1939-1944\ Lincoln, Nebraska, published by
LELBA in 1981; there, on page 113, is also the name of E. Jundzis vvith a notation as follows: "Edgars
Jundzis, m. 9795, 17 V, . S.: Albert Schvveitzer's Eschatological Vievvpoint Concerning the Life of
Jesus"
4

Ibid.

These facts vvere recorded by Edgars Jundzis in his Curriculum

to foster co-operation between the various different Christian denominations,

which later would permit to strengthen the Christian Church position under
the conditions of the Soviet occupation. The Lutheran Church was represented
by Edgars Jundzis at this meeting. As remembered by other representatives of
this gathering, it was Jundzis5 position that the Christian churches in Latvia
had to be very strong, or else they would loose their prior influence.6 Following his own conviction, Jundzis engaged himself in the renewal of Christian
life, and from 1945 to 1951, he led the restoration of the church in Gulbene
and was the pastor of the Gulbene Congregation. His work, however, was not
left unnoticed by the Soviet authorities; in September 1951, he is arrested and
deported to Vorkuta (Siberia) where he remained until August 1955.7
After his return to Latvia and until the end of his life, E. Jundzis was
the pastor of the congregations at Jaunpienbalga, Vecpiebalga, rgi, Drusti,
Velna, and the Estonian Church of Riga. In 1967, during the Reformation
Holiday, the then Archbishop G. Turss promoted E. Jundzis to "Senior Pastor"
position, noting his investment in the service of congregations (especially in
the renewal of the church and congregation at Gulbene), including his "successful and faithful work as a faculty member at the Faculty of Theology."8
E. Jundzis was member of the teaching staff of the Academic Theology
Courses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (starting with 1976, Theology
Seminary), initially as an assistant professor and later as a visiting professor.
He wrote several compendia that had a characteristically original approach to
New Testament text explanations: in 1969, he wrote History of Pre-Christian
Literatra in 1972, Exegesis of the Roman Letter\ in 1978, Exegesis of the
Gospel by John\ in 1985, Exegesis of Corinthian Letters. In addition, in 1974,
E. Jundzis wrote a school textbook on Greek grammar.

LVA [State Archives of Latvia] VDK [State Security Committee] 1986 (Soviet), criminal case Nr.
8414 (Irbe), from Edvards Kalni interrogation materials of 4 June 1946; from Krlis Lceklis interrogation materials of 12 April 1946; agency's materials and Irbe's commentaries of 26 June 1946. These
materials are noted in the article: Jouko Talonen, "Church under the Pressure of Stalinism." In: Studia
Historica Septentrionalia 25. Societas Historica Finlandiae Septentrionalis, 1997, page 59.
7

Sentenced in accordance vvith RSFSR Military Registration and Enlistment Office, Article 58, Section
10, paragraph 1, for keeping anti-Soviet literature.

Vitae.

Necrology. Latvijas ev. lut. Bazncas kalendrs 1987. gadam [Latvian Ev. Luth. Church Calendar,
1987]. Rga: Ev. lut. Bazncas konsistorija, 1987, 187. lpp.

On 22 July 1980, the Assistant Professor of the Theology Seminary, the

Theology Licentiate E. Jundzis successfully defended his doctoral dissertation
on the theme "The life of Jesus Based on the Foundation of the Synoptic and
Johannine Tradition." During 6-13 September of the same year, E. Jundzis,
together with other pastors of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church and
professors of the Theology Seminary, attended the Lutheran World Federation
Conference in Tallinn. In 1986, E. Jundzis hoped go to the land of his youth,
Switzerland; however, this dream failed to be fulfilledon 21 October 1986,
in Jaunpiebalga, E. Jundzis goes to eternity. He was buried at the Jaunpiebalga
Cemetery on 25 October 1986.
As emphasized by a nekrology dedicated to the memory of E. Jundzis,
"it appears that participatiori'in the training of new theologians, especially
within the confines of the Theology Seminary, was the Senior Pastor's greatest love. Here was an opportunity for his scientist's-finder's soul to develop,
and for fruitful growth of his rich knowledge of the New Testament and the
ancient Greek language." 9 Here, it should be noted that Edgars Jundzis had a
good command of the Latin, English, and Lithuanian languages; he was also
fluent in German, Estonian, and Russian and that he successfully applied these
skills in his studies.
In 1980, two doctoral candidatesE. Jundzis and R. Akmentihad
decided to defend their doctoral theses. As noted in the article "The Science
of Theology in Latvia from 1944 to 1990" by Juris Rubenis, "battles took
place concerning the defence of these dissertations. Both doctoral candidates
requested that the defence of their dissertations should take place in accordance with the rules established by the Faculty of Theology of the University
of Latvia, namelyduring a meeting of the Faculty Board of the Theology
Seminary, in the presence of at least three theology doctors. It was impossible
to assure the last part of the request. The officials (Soviets) placed obstacles
to block the participation of theology doctors from abroad. Then the doctoral
candidates agreed to defend their doctoral theses outside Latvia. Conversations
were begun with the GDR and the Hungarian theology universities, which in

principle gave their concurrence. 10 However, the Soviets forbade the doctoral
candidates to leave Latvia."11
On 22 July 1980, in the Theology Seminary Auditorium in Riga, at 7
Ja Street, a Faculty Board meeting of the Theology Seminary of the Latvian
Evangelical Lutheran Church was held, during which E. Jundzis defended his
dissertation, "The life of Jesus Based on the Foundation of the Synoptic and
Johannine Tradition" and received a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in TheologyIn the course of the defence process, during which the dissertation by
Edgars Jundzis was called a heresy more than once, the process left out parts
that were most important to him as a scientist, namelyhis offered concept of
Jesus' two-period life and an objective analysis of the proof.
The dissertation by E. Jundzis was written in isolation from the studies
of Jesus' life, which took place in the West, and therefore, the author could not
evaluate its originality. However, even without any knowledge about the disputs and quests that were typical for his Western colleagues of that time, he
has worked in parallel in his studies, and consequently, should be considered
to have shared the quest. For example, like the Swede Jalmar Soderberg in his
novel Jesus Barabbas (1928), also Jundzis identifies Jesus from Nazareth with
Jesus Barabbas.12 A similar opinion was brought forward in 1968 by Hyam
Maccoby, an expert in Judaism, and in 1973, he published a book on this subject, Revolution in Judaea: Jesus andJewish Resistance. Initially, this version
was not taken seriously, but since the mid 1970s, various alternative stories of
the life and also of the death of Jesus have been created on its basis, alternative
to the evangelical version. It is to be noted that the work by Maccoby was not
available to Jundzis.

10
J. Rubenis does not mention the news, which was provided by Professor H. Biezais at the beginning
of 1990that E. Jundzis was looking for the opportunity to defend his dissertation also at Obu Academy (Finland) and at Wittenberg College (USA).
11
J. Rubenis. Teoloijas zintne Latvij no 1944. ldz 1990. gadam [Theology Science in Latvia
from 1944 until 1990]. Filozofija un teoloija. Rakstu krjums [Philosophy and Theology. Collected
articles]. Rga: LZA Filozofijas un socioloijas institts, 1991, 12. lpp.

Necrology. Latvijas ev. lut. Bazncas kalendars 1987. gadam [Latvian Ev. Luth. Church's 1987 calendar]. Rga: Ev. lut. Bazncas konsistorija, 1987, 187. lpp.

12
Here it is to be remembered that the name of Jesus, as the first name of Barabbas, appears only in the
translations of the Gospels into Syrian, and therefore, it is considered that in the initial versions of the
Gospels this name had been absent.

However, there is something in his dissertation, which allows one to

deem this work unique when compared to similar studies in the West. Namely,
this is the theory of the two-period life of Jesus, or his version about two
crucifixions: the first one, where Jesus of Nazareth as Jesus Barabbas (a ruler,
strictly keeping to Judaism traditions, and a potential Messiah within the comprehension of Judaism) is liberated, thanks to people's will; and the second
one, where Jesus of Nazareth, as Jesus Christ (already a denier of Judaism and
preacher of a new teaching) is crucified. Undoubtedly, Jundzis himself was
sure about the originality of his theory and considered it revolutionary in the
studies of Jesus' life.
The first, and as far as we know, the only review that is close to being
an academically scrutinized evaluation, was given by Professor H. Biezais,
after having become familiar with the dissertation published in 1994 by the
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.
During correspondence, which took place during the period from spring 1992
to fall 1994, he has written about Jundzis' work several times.13
On 18 October 1994, he writes, "I have been able to review it very
carefully with intense interest. It is based on vast knowledge and is written by
a clearly gifted mind. Here, I must insert a personai note. When I enrolled in
the Theology Faculty in 1928, he was already close to graduation. Our studies
together included only three semesters. During that time, I got to know him
very little; but, nonetheless, he had a unique and unorthodox personality [...].
Now, the dissertation reveals, that until its defence, he had been "fighting"
with those problematics for which he had received a prize already during his
studiesA. Schvveitzer's radical eschalogical hypothesis, which was repudiated by J's teacher, K. Kundzi. This dissertation is J's life-long workits
final outcome. Indeed, it is truly written in an elegant way. I read it in simple
and easy language with intense and elevated interest, without academic expression, head-spinning, knotty phraselogy. It reads like an astute criminal
investigator's report, where arguments are arranged next to each other like
small jevvels that at the end bring forth a complete, rounded-out scene, without

13

H. Biezais was the editor-in-chief of the renewed Reliiski-filozofiskie

cal VVritings].

10

any contradictions or misunderstandings. My NT [New Testament] knowledge does not go that far for me to teli, if J's hypothesis about the radically
different two-period images of Jesus is his unique revelation, or whether it
has already been previously presented by researchers of Jesus' life. J himself
keeps silent on that point. That makes one believe that this hypothesis is his
creation. That alone is enough and your efforts to publish this dissertation are
fully justified. Moreover, I would like to go even farther and point out that in
all Latvian theology research history, there is no other work that has expressed
itself so radically about any of its own hypothesis. The old fathers who disputedRezevskis, Maulns, Sanderswere concerned with some individual
minte problem, trying to understand it. None of them had J's scope of effort
nor the investment in work and thought. If it is permitted, I would say, that it
is some kind of obsession that has accompanied him during this lengthy fiftyyear period, when he wrote this work during such hard times and sometimes
under inhumane conditions." 14
Biezais once again retums to Jundzis' two-period hypothesis, expressing his doubts about its validity. In his opinion, Jundzis' "mistake is a purely
scientifically methodological one. Reading this work, one sees as if a red pathway threads itself through his completely free utilization of the NT, chosen
from different writings, both, in a positive as well as a negative sense. [...]
Thus, the texts are categorized not by their semantic context position, but by
their compatibility with a two-period hypothesis. It is noted here that it is not
understood by me, how the highly educated J applies such mixture of subject
matter from different NT texts. [...] Here is J's methodological mistake, which
is not understood by me as a thinking person. [...] The efforts of history to
express the rationally indescribable in a rationally-based way are impossible.
Rationally, there is no substantiation that Jesus was a Messiah and, it can't
rationally be said that Jesus has saved the world with love. The gifted and
knowledgeable believer Jundzis wanted to provide a basis for his faith, utilizing different views from other faiths. That is enough for us to venerably note
his work." 15

14

From the letter by H. Biezais letter to S. Krumina-Konkova, 18 October 1994 in Tby.

15

Ibid.

raksti [Religious-Philosophi-

11

A week later, on 27 October 1994, Biezais retums once more to J's dissertation: "Nostalgia! It turns out that Jundzis is not the only faithful student
of Kundzi, who preaches, i.e., provides a scientifically-based, redeeming
universal love. Biezais also faithfully follows this 'scientifically-based' viewpoint that Jesus has preached it. I have uncovered this truth also, after 50 years,
in my own dissertation. What a wonderful experience! [...] Beautiful are also
those 50 years that the author has spent in his world of thoughts."16 In another
of Biezais letters appear some harsher lines: "Of course, everything has its basis and processes have their motivs. I know this world from the inside and it
does not surprise me; it can only be recorded as it is. Hopefully, this published
work will provide joy to one or another while reading and contemplating about
it. It would even be better, if spmeone were to comment about it in the press.
However, there are no high hopes for that. The 'bush-people' seldom venture
out from bushes to show themselves on an open field."17
Here, it only should be added, it seems, that the importance of a scientific work, and this dissertation is certainly to be considered as such, is frequently determined by the fact whether or not it arouses interest and, eventu l i with thata discussion. The evaluations of E. Jundzis' dissertation, no
matter how negative they may be, undoubtedly show that this work belongs to
those worthy of discussion.
With this "Thesis" and "Short Summary" publication, the reader will
get an insight about this work.
Solveiga

Krmia-Kokova,
Nikandrs Gills,
Researchers of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology,
University of Latvia

,6
17

ibid.
From the letter by H. Biezais to N. Gills, 12 December 1994, in Tby.

10 12

The Life of Jesus

Based on the Foundation of
Synoptic and Johannine Tradition

by
Rev. Edgars Jundzis, Dr.theol.
Rev. Jundzis' Doctoral Dissertation Theses
and Summary