Hermann Leberecht Strack (6 May 1848 – 5 October 1922) was a German

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

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 ...

and orientalist; born in

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 ...

Biography

From 1877, Strack was assistant professor of

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 ...

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...

and

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 ...

at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. He was the foremost

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

authority in Germany on

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

ic and

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...

, and studied

rabbinics Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian ...

under

Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (30 March 1816, Prostějov, Moravia, Austrian Empire – 24 January 1907, Berlin) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider ( 1782; ...

. Since the reappearance of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

in Germany, Strack had been the champion of the

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

s against the attacks of such men as Hofprediger

Adolf Stoecker Adolf Stoecker (December 11, 1835 – February 2, 1909) was a German court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm I, a politician, leading antisemite, and a Lutheran theologian who founded the Christian Social Party to lure members away from the S ...

, Professor August Rohling, and others. In 1885 Strack became the editor of ''Nathanael. Zeitschrift für die Arbeit der Evangelischen Kirche an Israel'', published at

; and in 1883 he founded the ''

Institutum Judaicum The Institutum Judaicum was a special academic course for Protestant theologians who desired to prepare themselves for missionary work among the Jews. The first of its kind was founded at the University of Halle, by Professor Callenberg in 1724 ...

'', which aimed at the conversion of Jews to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. In the beginning of his career the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n government sent Strack to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to examine the Bible manuscripts there; on this occasion he examined also the antiquities of the Firkovich collection, which he declared to be forgeries. This claim was found to be untrue: the Firkovich collection is closely related to

Cairo Geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the '' genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Eg ...

material found by

Solomon Schechter Solomon Schechter ( he, שניאור זלמן הכהן שכטר‎; 7 December 1847 – 19 November 1915) was a Moldavian-born British-American rabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the ...

Selected works

*''Prolegomena Critica in Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum'' (Leipzig, 1873); *''Katalog der Hebräschen Bibelhandschriften der Kaiserlichen Oeffentlichen Bibliothek in St. Petersburg'' (St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1875), in collaboration with

A. Harkavy Abraham (Albert) Harkavy (, russian: Авраа́м Я́ковлевич Гарка́ви, translit=Avraám Yákovlevich Garkávi; 17 October 1835 – 15 March 1919) was a Russian historian and orientalist. Biography Harkavy was born in 1835 ...

; *''Prophetarum Posteriorum Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus'' (ib. 1876); *''A. Firkowitch und Seine Entdeckungen'' (ib. 1876); *editions of the ''Mishnah'' tractates ''Abot'' (Carlsruhe, 1882; 2d ed. Berlin, 1888), ''Yoma'' (ib. 1888), '' 'Abodah Zarah'' (ib. 1888), and ''Shabbat'' (ib. 1890);
''Hebräische Grammatik''
(Karlsruhe, 1883; 3d ed. Munchen, 1902)
''Hebrew Grammar''
(Berlin-London-New York, 1889; 2nd English ed.) *''Lehrbuch der Neuhebräischen Sprache und Litteratur'' (ib. 1884), in collaboration with Karl Siegfried; *''Herr Adolf Stöcker'' (ib. 1885; 2d ed. 1886); *''Einleitung in den Talmud'' (Leipzig, 1887; 2d ed. 1894), a revised reprint of his article on the subject in Herzog-Hauck's ''Real-Encyklopädie,'' to which he made a whole series of contributions on rabbinic subjects;
''Paradigmen zur Hebräischen Grammatik''
(Leipzig, 1887) *''Einleitung in das Alte Testament'' (Nördlingen, 1888; 5th ed. Munich, 1898); *''Der Blutaberglaube in der Menschheit, Blutmorde und Blutritus'' (ib. 1891; 5th ed. 1900), an investigation into the

blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...

; *''Die Juden. Dürfen Sie 'Verbrecher von Religionswegen' Genannt Werden?'' (Berlin, 1893); *''Abriss des Biblischen Aramäisch'' (Leipzig, 1897). *''Jüdische Geheimgesetze? Mit 3 Anh.: Rohling, Ecker und kein Ende?. Artur Dinter u. Kunst, Wissenschaft, Vaterland. "Die Weisen von Zion" und ihre Gläubigen'' (Berlin 1920; ib. 3rd and 4th ed. 1921). *''Introduction to the Talmud & Midrash'' (1931), Jewish Publication Society of America, based on the 5th Edition of Einleitung in den Talmud & Midrasch. *''Kommentar zum Neuen Testament Aus Talmud und Midrasch'', with

Paul Billerbeck Paul Billerbeck (4 April 1853 – 23 December 1932) was a Lutheran minister and scholar of Judaism, best known for his ''Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash'' (German, 1926) co-written with Hermann Strack. Billerbeck was b ...

; (1922–1928; 4 volumes). Since 1886 Strack was associated with Zoeckler in editing the ''Kurzgefasster Kommentar zu den Schriften des Alten und Neuen Testaments'' (Nördlingen and Munich). Strack was also a member of the Foreign Board of Consulting Editors of the ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

''.

Translations

*
The Passover Meal
', translated by Nathaniel J. Biebert
Red Brick Parsonage
2013). *
Luke 18 and Fasting: Commentary on Luke 18:11b,12a
', translated by Nathaniel J. Biebert
Red Brick Parsonage
2013). *
John 10 and Hanukkah: Commentary on John 10:22-30
', translated by Nathaniel J. Biebert
Red Brick Parsonage
2013). *
Commentary on Luke 7:36-50
', translated by Nathaniel J. Biebert
Red Brick Parsonage
2013). *
Commentary on Matthew 5:13-14
', translated by Nathaniel J. Biebert
Red Brick Parsonage
2014).

References

External links

* *
Digitized works by Hermann Strack
at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strack, Hermann 1848 births 1922 deaths Writers from Berlin Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin 19th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German Protestant theologians German orientalists Christian Hebraists German male non-fiction writers 19th-century male writers