Friedrich Delitzsch (1850–1922) was a notable German Assyriologist and the son of Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch. Born in Erlangen, he studied in Leipzig and Berlin, earning his habilitation in Semitic languages and Assyriology. He became a full professor at Leipzig in 1885, later teaching at the Universities of Breslau and Berlin. Delitzsch co-founded the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft and directed the Vorderasiatische Abteilung of the Royal Museums, contributing significantly to Near Eastern studies.
Bible-Babel Controversy
See also: Panbabylonism
Friedrich Delitzsch specialized in the study of ancient Middle Eastern languages, and published numerous works on Assyrian language, history and culture. He is remembered today for his scholarly critique of the Old Testament. In a 1902 controversial lecture titled "Babel and Bible", Delitzsch maintained that many Old Testament writings were borrowed from ancient Babylonian tales, including the Genesis creation narrative and the Genesis flood narrative. During the following years there were several translations and modified versions of the "Babel and Bible". In the early 1920s, Delitzsch published the two-part Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception), which was a critical treatise on the book of Psalms, prophets of the Old Testament, the invasion of Canaan, etc. Delitzsch also stridently questioned the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible and placed great emphasis on its numerous examples of immorality (see also Julius Wellhausen).
Influence and legacy
Although Delitzsch's proposal to replace the Old Testament with German myths did not extend to this revision, his student Paul Haupt was one of the major advocates of the thesis of the Aryan Jesus.1
In 1904, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.2
Works
- Friedrich Delitzsch (1889). Archibald Robert Stirling Kennedy (ed.). Assyrian grammar with paradigms, exercises, glossary and bibliography. Vol. 10 of Porta linguarum orientalium. H. Reuther. p. 446. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
- Friedrich Delitzsch (1896). Assyrisches Handwörterbuch (ATLA monograph preservation program). J.C. Hinrichs. p. 730. ISBN 9780837089799. Retrieved 2011-07-05. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
- Bruno Meissner, Friedrich Delitzsch (1898). Assyrisches Handwörterbuch. 1896 (ATLA monograph preservation program). E.J. Brill. p. 137. ISBN 9780837085975. Retrieved 2011-07-05. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Further reading
- Arnold, Bill T.; Weisberg, David B. (2002). "A Centennial Review of Friedrich Delitzsch's 'Babel und Bibel' Lectures". Journal of Biblical Literature. 121 (3): 441–57. doi:10.2307/3268155. JSTOR 3268155.
- Arnold, Bill T.; Weisberg, David B. (2002). "Babel und Bibel und Bias: How Anti-Semitism Distorted Friedrich Delitzsch's Scholarship". Bible Review. 18 (1): 32–40, 47.
- Arnold, Bill T.; Weisberg, David B. (2004). "Delitzsch in Context". In Ellens, J. Harold; Ellens, Deborah L.; Knierim, Rolf P.; Kalimi, Isaac (eds.). God's Word for Our World, Volume II: Theological and Cultural Studies in Honor of Simon John De Vries. 389. London: T & T Clark International. pp. 37–45.
External links
References
Susannah Heschel The Aryan Jesus: Christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany ↩
"APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-06-28. https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1904&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced ↩