Hebrew Commentary on the Bible (*)
By Dr. J. Friedlander, Professor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
THE enterprise noted in the tittle, quite apart from its literary importance, ought to arouse considerable interest. The Jews nowadays have done so little for that great intellectual work grouped about the Biblical writings that any serious contribution to Biblical exegesis by a Jewish hand deserves our earnest attention and encouragement. The period when the investigation of Biblical problems was the monopoly of the "people of the Book" and the Christian Bible exegetes were content with the crumbs thrown to them by their Jewish co-workers has long passed. Conditions, at the present time, are altogether different. Biblical science now is the assured possession of the Christians and the Jews, who, having cultivated the gardens of other folks with so much care, have let their own fall into complete neglect. So much so is this the case that a Jew who dares make a contribution to Biblical exegsis is looked upon as an intruder by the guild of learned exegetes and partly by himself. In itself it is immaterial who makes a contribution to Biblical exegesis. In scientific writing the subject of investigation, not the person of the author, is all-important—"to recognize truth no matter what its source,"
*Pentateuch, Prophets and Hagiographa, with a scientific Commentary. Edited with the co-operation of scholars, by Abraham Kahana. Hagiographa. The Psalms, with a commentary by H. P. Chajes. Jitomir, 1903. The book can be obtained from Abraham Kahana, the publisher, in Jitomir, Russia.
is commended to our notice by the Talmud. Nevertheless, without positively ignoring the work of modern Biblical scholars, we must declare that in their works a narrow view obtains which has worked ill upon Biblical science. Because this science has become concentrated among Christian theologians, a series of prejudices, obstructing the progress of truth, has arisen. As Christians they seek—whether consciously or unconsciously is of no importance here—to exhibit the Old Testament as incomplete and transitory, a preparation for the New Testament; hence they cannot value it at its proper historical worth without a shade of bias. As Aryans they are frequently out of sympathy with the Semitic conception and expression of ideas, as these are found in the Bible, and so very often fail to grasp their sense and spirit.* For this reason and also because of our racial pride and love of true scholarship we are glad to see that a number of Jewish scholars, free from the bias which fetters their Christian co-worker, have united in producing an exegetical work from a desire of contributing substantially to the universal veneration and spirit of interpretation of the Bible.
A special circumstance lends quite an interest to the present work. This commentary is designed on critical lines, i. e.,
*I need call attention to but a few modern examples of a "reconstruction" of the text of the Hebrew Bible, a ridiculous hodgepodge, to prove the utter lack of understanding for the spirit of the Hebrew on the part of many Christian exegetes.