Franz Julius Delitzsch Books & Biography

FRANZ JULIUS DELITZSCH, a biblical scholar, descendant of a family of Jewish and Lutheran-Pietist origin, was born in Leipzig (Germany). He taught in Rostock (1846-50) and Erlangen (1850-67), before returning to Leipzig for the rest of his life (1867-90).

He wrote many works on rabbinical studies, opposed to anti-Semitism, although without stopping seeking the Christian conversion of the Jews. He founded a Jewish Institute in Leipzig, which bears his name.

He carefully examined Wellhausen’s critical theories and cautiously supported the different literary origins of the Pentateuch and Isaiah’s double literary fatherhood. Of great influence in the English-speaking world, he is mainly remembered as an exegete. He is considered one of the main exegetes of the Old Testament in the 19^th century and a great connoisseur of rabbinic literature. He had the ability to unite theological interpretation with philological rigor. His main literary contributions to biblical exegesis are numerous comments to the books of the Bible, although he wrote other important works on Jewish antiquities and on biblical psychology, history of Jewish poetry, and Christian apologetics. One of his most appreciated works in biblical exegesis is his commentary on Psalms, Die Psalmen, 1894.

Delitzsch collaborated with Carld Fredrich Keil in the writing of the Biblischer Comment über das Alte Testament, a commentary on the Hebrew text of the Old Testament in the part of the commentaries corresponding to Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Isaiah.