„Die niedere Kritik“
-
Hanna Liss
Abstract
Although the study of the Hebrew Bible never formed the center of formal Jewish education, it had always been part of it. In the Middle Ages, Masoretic Bibles as well as Masoretic compilations were studied and introduced in Jewish Medieval commentaries under a variety of names. Jewish commentators dealt differently with Masoretic notes. Whereas some of them made use of the Masorah in order to support rabbinic traditions that seemed to be tied to the biblical text only loosely, others dealt with the Masorah in the way modern scholarship would do, i. e., to take the Masoretic notes as a “fence around the written Torah”. Overall, the Masoretic Text was regarded as an essential component of the Bible although it was considered an offspring of later Jewish tradition. Still in the 18th century, Moses Mendelssohn in his introduction to the translation of the Pentateuch (1782) had argued that the oral tradition of the Masoretic text had served as a guarantor for the text’s purity, and had safeguarded the text from any later corruption. In contrast, the Protestant Bible scholar J. G. Eichhorn had argued that especially the oral transmission of the biblical text was the source of its corruption, and critical scholarship was obliged to emend the corrupt text. At the end of the 18th century at the latest, the Masoretic hyper-text was deprived of its embedment in Jewish tradition, since Protestant historicalcritical research on the Hebrew Bible sought to reconstruct a Biblical “Urtext” and was not very much interested in Masorah Studies as part of the “Niedere Kritik” (“Textkritik”). This development led to the result that Masorah studies by the representatives of the Wissenschaft des Judentums could not develop within the context of the academic Bible studies at the universities. Thus, the works of Salomon Frensdorff, Benjamin Wolf Heidenheim, or Seligmann Isaak Baer were neglected and were only recently rediscovered.
Abstract
Although the study of the Hebrew Bible never formed the center of formal Jewish education, it had always been part of it. In the Middle Ages, Masoretic Bibles as well as Masoretic compilations were studied and introduced in Jewish Medieval commentaries under a variety of names. Jewish commentators dealt differently with Masoretic notes. Whereas some of them made use of the Masorah in order to support rabbinic traditions that seemed to be tied to the biblical text only loosely, others dealt with the Masorah in the way modern scholarship would do, i. e., to take the Masoretic notes as a “fence around the written Torah”. Overall, the Masoretic Text was regarded as an essential component of the Bible although it was considered an offspring of later Jewish tradition. Still in the 18th century, Moses Mendelssohn in his introduction to the translation of the Pentateuch (1782) had argued that the oral tradition of the Masoretic text had served as a guarantor for the text’s purity, and had safeguarded the text from any later corruption. In contrast, the Protestant Bible scholar J. G. Eichhorn had argued that especially the oral transmission of the biblical text was the source of its corruption, and critical scholarship was obliged to emend the corrupt text. At the end of the 18th century at the latest, the Masoretic hyper-text was deprived of its embedment in Jewish tradition, since Protestant historicalcritical research on the Hebrew Bible sought to reconstruct a Biblical “Urtext” and was not very much interested in Masorah Studies as part of the “Niedere Kritik” (“Textkritik”). This development led to the result that Masorah studies by the representatives of the Wissenschaft des Judentums could not develop within the context of the academic Bible studies at the universities. Thus, the works of Salomon Frensdorff, Benjamin Wolf Heidenheim, or Seligmann Isaak Baer were neglected and were only recently rediscovered.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Inhalt VII
- Einleitung 1
-
Dialog und Emanzipation
- Orientalische Poesie als schönes Ganzes? 11
- Hermeneutik des Konkreten 25
- Re-Forming Professions 41
- Scripture and Separatism 57
-
Bildung und Erziehung
- Wissensspeicher, Lehrbuch, Erkenntnisquelle 77
- Ordnungen religiösen Wissens 93
- Kinderbibeln als Mittel jüdischer Bibelauslegung 113
-
Hermeneutik und Wissenschaft
- „Die niedere Kritik“ 139
- Samuel David Luzzatto and Abraham Geiger on the Textual Criticism of the Bible: Continuity or Conflict? 161
- Die Anfänge moderner Bibelwissenschaft in der Wiener Haskala 171
-
Kommentare und Übersetzungen
- Bibelübersetzung und Kommentarwerk des liberalen Rabbiners Ludwig Philippson 197
- Zur Werkbiografie Benno Jacobs aus der Zeit vor seinen großen Kommentaren 215
- Der Ewige 233
- Herxheimers Bibelwerk 247
-
Anhang
- Literaturverzeichnis 273
- Über die Autorinnen und Autoren 297
- Abbildungsverzeichnis 301
- Personenregister 303
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Inhalt VII
- Einleitung 1
-
Dialog und Emanzipation
- Orientalische Poesie als schönes Ganzes? 11
- Hermeneutik des Konkreten 25
- Re-Forming Professions 41
- Scripture and Separatism 57
-
Bildung und Erziehung
- Wissensspeicher, Lehrbuch, Erkenntnisquelle 77
- Ordnungen religiösen Wissens 93
- Kinderbibeln als Mittel jüdischer Bibelauslegung 113
-
Hermeneutik und Wissenschaft
- „Die niedere Kritik“ 139
- Samuel David Luzzatto and Abraham Geiger on the Textual Criticism of the Bible: Continuity or Conflict? 161
- Die Anfänge moderner Bibelwissenschaft in der Wiener Haskala 171
-
Kommentare und Übersetzungen
- Bibelübersetzung und Kommentarwerk des liberalen Rabbiners Ludwig Philippson 197
- Zur Werkbiografie Benno Jacobs aus der Zeit vor seinen großen Kommentaren 215
- Der Ewige 233
- Herxheimers Bibelwerk 247
-
Anhang
- Literaturverzeichnis 273
- Über die Autorinnen und Autoren 297
- Abbildungsverzeichnis 301
- Personenregister 303
