Page 342 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

322 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

was himself of partlyJewish origin." His view on the OT was, however,
singularly unsympathetic:
The Old Testament isfull of all kinds of deceptions: a veritable hodge-
podge of erroneous, incredible, undependable figures, including those
of Biblicalchronology; a veritable maze of falseportrayals, misleading
reworkings, revisions and transpositions, together with anachronisms;
a never-ending jumble of contradictory details and entire narratives,
unhistorical inventions, legends and folktales, in short a book full of
intentional and unintentional deceptions, in part self-deceptions, a
very dangerous book, in the use of which the greatest care is necessary"

Repeatedly denounced as anti-Semitic, Delitzsch just as repeatedly de-
nied it.

But in view of certain of his remarks (e.g., ... where he calls theJews
'a fearful danger of which the German people must be warned'), the
accusation seems justificd.!

Of Delitzsch's work on the OT, Die Grosse Tiiuschung, John Bright con-
cludes,

Seldom has the Old Testament been subjected to more vicious abuse
than in this book. It is really a very bad book (I should say a 'sick
book.V

Bearing open hostility towards the OT and desiring strongly to disassociate
Christianity from it, Delitzsch wrote in a vein which now disqualifies his
book and casts his repute into serious question because of his anti-Semitism.

ii. Can an Anti:Judaic Scholar be Impartial
When Dealing with aJewish Theme?

John Strugnell, a Harvard professor, ascended to the post of chief editor
of the official Dead Sea Scroll editorial team in 1987but received a highly
publicised dismissal three years later. His problems began with an interview
he gave to Israelijournalist Avi Katzman (published in Ha'arete, 9 November

2 John Bright, The Authority ofthe Old Testament, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1967,
pp.65-66.
3 ibid, p. 66, quotingFriedrichDelitzsch, Die Grosse Tiiuschung (1920).
4 ibid, p. 67, footnote 21.
5 ibid. p. 65.