Christian Hebraists - Late 19th Century

Late 19th Century

The Institutum Judaicum in Leipzig, founded by Franz Delitzsch, and a similar society bearing the same name in Berlin and founded by Hermann Strack, have attempted, by their various publications, to diffuse in the Christian world a knowledge of Jewish writings. Gustav Dalman has shown by his philological works on Talmudic grammar and lexicography that he is at home in the rabbinic writings. Hermann Strack in Berlin demands special mention not only for his publications dealing with the literature of the Mishnah and the Talmud, but also on account of the fearless manner in which he has combated anti-Semitic prejudice, drawing his material directly from the original sources. Carl Siegfried, in his yearly reports in the Theologischer Jahresbericht, for many years called attention to publications on Jewish subjects, and the mention of such works in the Orientalische Bibliographie has served to bring them more closely to the attention of Christian scholars. The roll of Christian Hebraists in England includes the names of J. W. Etheridge, the author of a popular Introduction to Hebrew Literature (1856); Thomas Chenery, translator of Legends from the Midrash (1877), and editor of Al-Ḥarizi's translation of Ḥariri; and W. H. Lowe, who edited the Palestinian recension of the Mishnah.

In spite, however, of these facts and of the warning given by Lagarde (Symmicta, ii. 147; Mittheilungen, ii. 165), that in order to understand the Bible text itself a deep study of the Halakah is necessary, Christian writers on the life of Jesus continue their disregard of the primary sources. This may be seen in Hausrath's Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte (Kaufmann Gedenkbuch, p. 659), and even in Schürer (Gesch.), who, though making a great advance upon previous efforts, still relies upon second-hand sources for many of the pictures that he draws (see Abrahams in "J. Q. R." xi. 628). Adolph Harnack, who, in his Dogmengeschichte (3d ed.), endeavors to do some justice to the rabbis of old, in his Wesen des Christenthums (1900), sustains potential historical inaccuracies from a perhaps selective review of Jewish literature of the relevant period, possibly most noticeable in a lack of regard for the Jewish literature and history during the most recent eighteen hundred years.