Friedrich Delitzsch (; 3 September 1850 – 19 December 1922) was a German
Assyriologist
Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , '' -logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southea ...
. He was the son of
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
Franz Delitzsch
Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of J ...
(1813–1890).
Born in
Erlangen
Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...
, he studied in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, gaining his
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
in 1874 as a lecturer of
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...
and Assyriology in Leipzig. In 1885 he became a
full professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
at Leipzig, afterwards serving as a professor at the Universities of
Breslau (1893) and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
(1899).
He was co-founder of the ''
Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (, ''German Oriental Society''), abbreviated DOG, is a German voluntary association based in Berlin dedicated to the study of the Near East.
The DOG was officially founded in January 1898 to foster public interest ...
'' (German Oriental Society) and director of the ''
Vorderasiatische Abteilung'' (Near Eastern Department) of the Royal Museums.
Bible-Babel Controversy
Friedrich Delitzsch specialized in the study of ancient Middle Eastern languages, and published numerous works on
Assyrian
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
language, history and culture. He is remembered today for his scholarly critique of the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
. 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
The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word ...
and the
Genesis flood narrative
The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the micro ...
. 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
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
, prophets of the Old Testament, the invasion of
Canaan
Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
, etc. Delitzsch also stridently questioned the historical accuracy of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
and placed great emphasis on its numerous examples of immorality (see also
Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen (17 May 1844 – 7 January 1918) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist. In the course of his career, he moved from Old Testament research through Islamic studies to New Testament scholarship. Wellhausen contributed to t ...
).
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 Hermann Hugo Paul Haupt (25 November 1858 in Görlitz – 15 December 1926 in Baltimore, Maryland) was a Semitic scholar, one of the pioneers of Assyriology in the United States.
He studied at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig. In 1880 he be ...
was one of the major advocates of the thesis of the Aryan Jesus.
In 1904, he was elected as a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
Works
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References
Book Rags; Friedrich and Franz Delitzsch
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Delitzsch, Friedrich
1850 births
1922 deaths
19th-century German Protestant theologians
20th-century German Protestant theologians
German Assyriologists
German Lutheran theologians
German scholars
Humboldt University of Berlin faculty
Leipzig University alumni
Leipzig University faculty
People from Erlangen
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
University of Breslau faculty
19th-century German male writers
Paleolinguists
Linguists of Indo-Semitic languages
German male non-fiction writers
Members of the American Philosophical Society