JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

and Fleischuetz (1778) also referring occasionally to the original
Hebrew. Another Catholic Bible appeared anonymously
at Vienna in 1794. Heinrich Braun’s version (1788–1805) provided
the basis for the widely distributed edition of J.F. von
Allioli (1830–37), which was revised by Arndt and furnished
with notes indicating textual divergences between the Vulgate
and the original (1898–99). C.M. Brentano made a translation
from the original text (1797), and Jaeck, one from the Vulgate
(1847), while Leander van Ess’s Bible (1822; 1950–55) and that
of V. Loch and W. Reischl (1851) enjoyed the success of Allioli’s
earlier translation. Modern Catholic editions include those of
Nivard Schloegl (1920), which was the first critical edition under
Catholic auspices. F. Feldmann and H. Herkenne (1923), J.
Nikel (1911–33), P. Riessler (1924), and Pius Parsch (1952).
A work of special interest was the so-called Biblia Pentapla
of 1710–12 (3 vols.), which compared the texts of Martin
Luther, Caspar Ulenberg, and Johannes Piscator, the two remaining
columns containing Joseph Witzenhausen’s Judeo-
German version and the Dutch Statenbijbel version. A parallel
Bible of 1887–88 contained Luther’s text together with a literal
translation in modern German.
A translation that has seen widespread use is the Einheitsuebersetzung
of 1980 (rev. 1994), which combines the work of
Catholic and evangelical translators.
JEWISH BIBLES IN GERMAN. The first Jew to translate the
Bible into High German was Moses Mendelssohn, whose work
was fiercely attacked by the rigidly Orthodox (notably Ezekiel
Landau and Phinehas Horowitz of Frankfurt) and repeatedly
placed under a ban. Mendelssohn’s closest collaborators were
Solomon Dubno, Hartwig Wessely, Naphtali Herz Homberg,
and Aaron Jaroslaw. The translation, printed in Hebrew characters,
appeared under the title Netivot ha-Shalom, together
with the original Hebrew and a commentary, designated Be’ur
(Biur). Mendelssohn himself translated the Pentateuch (1783),
Psalms (1785–91), Ecclesiastes (1770), and Song of Songs (1788;
ed. J. Loewe and A. Wolfsohn), and he also prepared a version
of the Song of Deborah. The project was completed by
his collaborators and successors, the “Biurists.” Translations of
separate portions of the Bible were supplied by various scholars.
A complete edition of the Minor Prophets, prepared by
Moses Philippson (Arnswalde), Josef Wolf, Gotthold Salomon
(S. Lipman), Israel Neumann, and Joel Loewe, appeared
as Minḥah Ḥadashah (1805) and reappeared in Moses Israel
Landau’s edition of the complete Bible (1833–37). Aside from
what Mendelssohn had himself prepared, the translation of
the remaining biblical books was the work of M.J. Landau,
Josef Weisse, Salomon Sachs, Wolf Mayer, Abraham Benisch,
and Marcus Goldmann. Mendelssohn’s Bible translation also
appeared in German orthography (Genesis, 1780; Pentateuch,
1815). In contrast to Luther, who based his rendering of God’s
name, “der Herr,” on the Greek kyrios of the Septuagint and the
Latin dominus of the Vulgate, Mendelssohn used “der Ewige”
(“The Eternal”), a term which was accepted by Germanspeaking
Jews. Mendelssohn’s work was a landmark for his
bible
community, providing a medium through which they could
assimilate an elegant German and be weaned away from the
Judaeo-German which they had spoken heretofore. It is thus
forms a kind of opening to the modern German-Jewish experience,
enabling the initial integration of Jews into modern
German life and culture.
The next translator of the Bible was Josef Johlson, who
furnished his text with scholarly notes (1831–36; only the first
half was actually published). Separate biblical books were
translated by A.A. Wolf, Phoebus Philippsohn. A. Bernstein
(A. Rebenstein), S.H. Auerbach, L. Herzberg, L.H. Loewenstein,
and Heymann Arnheim and Michael *Sachs (the combined
work of the latter two was later retained in the Bible
of Leopold Zunz). With the support of I.N. Mannheimer,
Gotthold Salomon published Deutsche Volksund Schul-Bibel
(1837), the first complete German Bible under Jewish auspices.
In his Die vierundzwanzig Buecher der Heiligen Schrift (2 vols.,
1837; 193517) L. Zunz translated only Chronicles, the remainder
being the work of Arnheim, Julius Fuerst, and Sachs. Solomon
*Herzheimer’s edition (4 vols., 1841–48) was intended for
Christians as well as Jews. Jacob Auerbach’s Kleine Schul- und
Haus-Bibel (1858) had a very wide distribution. Die israelitische
Bibel (3 vols., 1839–54) of Ludwig Philippson was revised by
W. Landau and S.I. Kaempf and illustrated with pictures by
Doré; this had been preceded in 1865 by an Orthodox edition
produced under the auspices of Isaac Dov (Seligman Baer)
Bamberger, A. Adler, and M. Lehmann. Orthodox approval
was also given to I. Cosman’s Pentateuch (1847–52) and, above
all, to Samson Raphael *Hirsch’s translations of the Pentateuch
(5 vols., 1867–78; 3 vols., 1956–58) and Psalms (1882; 1960),
to which the latter’s son, J. Hirsch, added a version of Isaiah
(1911). Other editions were an Illustrierte Pracht-Bibel (1874)
by J. Fuerst; a Pentateuch (1899, 19397) by J. Wohlgemuth and
I. Bleichrode; and a complete Bible (1902; 19295) by Simon
Bernfeld and H. Torczyner (4 vols., 1935–37).
Apart from the foregoing, there were also many German
Jewish translations of individual books of the Bible, such as
L.I. Mandelstamm and M. Kirschstein’s edition of Genesis
(3 vols., 1862–64). H. Graetz’s version of Psalms (1881), and
D.Z. Hoffmann’s translation and commentary on Leviticus
(2 vols., 1905–06) and Deuteronomy (2 vols., 1913–22). An
isolated modern attempt to reproduce the Old Testament in
German verse was that of M.A. Klausner’s Die Gedichte der
Bibel (1902). Two outstanding modern editions are Lazarus
Goldschmidt’s Die heiligen Buecher des Alten Bundes (the
Pentateuch, historical books, and Prophets having appeared
by 1923), which referred to rabbinic exegesis, and Die Schrift
(15 vols., 1926–37?, rev. 4 vols., 1954–1968) by Martin *Buber
and Franz *Rosenzweig, which endeavored to do justice to
the language and rhythm of the Hebrew text. This last work
forms a bracket to the history of modern German Jewry; in
its conscious departure from Luther and its attempt to “Germanize
the Hebrew” (the translators termed the work a “Verdeutschung”),
it reversed the usual direction of translation.
As mentioned a number of times previously, it has strongly
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 631