Benno Jacob
Encyclopedia
Benno Jacob was a Reform
rabbi
and Bible scholar.
). He served as a rabbi between the years 1891-1929 until he retired to Hamburg
to concentrate on his exegetical work.
Already in his student years he was active in the fight against antisemitism, he founded a Jewish student's society that introduced fencing
duels as a method of defending the honor of Judaism when it was degraded by antisemitic students. He was also an active author and orator in the fight against German antisemitism in the years following World War I. He opposed Zionism
not only because of his belief in a Jewish-German synthesis, but also because he saw in Zionism a complete secularization of Judaism and a basis for Jewish atheism.
.
Jacob was not a fundamentalist and did not believe in Mosaic authorship
. His rejection of the Documentary Hypothesis was based on his sense that the Pentateuch presents so much literary unity and spiritual harmony that a search for its "sources" could only be an exercise in futile hypothesis.
Melding a traditionalist (if not traditional) view of the Torah
with a knowledge of Semitics and applying a Germanic thoroughness to his conviction that no word in the Torah is out of place, he produced two commentaries which attempt to explain nearly every nuance of every word in the Bible.
The programmatic statement in his 1916 book, Quellenscheiden und Exegese im Pentateuch, illustrates his concerns:
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and Bible scholar.
Biography
Jacob studied in the Rabbinical Seminary and University of his native Breslau (now Wrocław, PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
). He served as a rabbi between the years 1891-1929 until he retired to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to concentrate on his exegetical work.
Already in his student years he was active in the fight against antisemitism, he founded a Jewish student's society that introduced fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
duels as a method of defending the honor of Judaism when it was degraded by antisemitic students. He was also an active author and orator in the fight against German antisemitism in the years following World War I. He opposed Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
not only because of his belief in a Jewish-German synthesis, but also because he saw in Zionism a complete secularization of Judaism and a basis for Jewish atheism.
Biblical Studies
Benno Jacob was a scholarly Reform rabbi (with a University degree in Semitics) in Germany until World War II. Before leaving Germany, he produced a monumental commentary on Genesis. Recently, a German edition of his commentary on Exodus has been published. Generally, Jacob is linked with Umberto Cassuto as one of the great twentieth-century opponents of the Documentary HypothesisDocumentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
.
Jacob was not a fundamentalist and did not believe in Mosaic authorship
Mosaic authorship
Mosaic authorship is the traditional attribution of the first five books of the Old Testament to Moses. The tradition is first definitively stated in the Babylonian Talmud, an encyclopedia of traditional Jewish learning compiled around the middle of the 1st millennium CE...
. His rejection of the Documentary Hypothesis was based on his sense that the Pentateuch presents so much literary unity and spiritual harmony that a search for its "sources" could only be an exercise in futile hypothesis.
Melding a traditionalist (if not traditional) view of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
with a knowledge of Semitics and applying a Germanic thoroughness to his conviction that no word in the Torah is out of place, he produced two commentaries which attempt to explain nearly every nuance of every word in the Bible.
The programmatic statement in his 1916 book, Quellenscheiden und Exegese im Pentateuch, illustrates his concerns:
[The Bible’s] means of representation may be termed the semi-poetic or dichotomistic. It proceeds like poetry, but without its strict measure [i.e., meter], employing instead paired thoughts, patterns of words and clauses and syntax, in doublets, parallels and contrasts; it is rooted, when all is said and done, in the Semitic [way of thought], which grasps matters dichotomously. This manner of seeing, conceiving and representing dominates the Hebrew language and literature in its entirety, to its subtlest manifestations.