Der Ursprung des Monotheismus (1879 Popper), book
Der Ursprung des Monotheismus (1879) is a book by Julius Popper.
Abstract
The first German-Jewish scholar to make a significant contribution to the field of redaction-criticism, Julius Popper was a man ahead of his time and ardently employed historical-critical methods to the study of the Pentateuch. Yet until recently, as HaCohen and Engel have recently pointed out in publication on the German-Jewish Reception of Historical Criticism, he was "destined to be forgotten entirely. To this day he remains unmentioned in any Jewish encyclopedia" (140).
In this work in particular, Popper draws upon historical-critical methods in order to investigate the origins and evolution of the concept of monotheism. He focuses much of his source-critical efforts on the Pentateuch, and writings about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in particular, suggesting that he wants to see if these figures were monotheists. Before jumping to any conclusions about how antiquated his approach may be, in an earlier publication, Popper delayed the final redaction of parts of the Pentateuch to 260 BCE!
In a Christian dominated Germany, Popper was unique in that he challenged his readers to acknowledge that monotheism originated with Judaism and that the very idea of it was "in den Schriften des Alten Testaments niedergelegt (enshrined in the writings of the Old Testament)" (2). ~Deborah Forger
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"Eine historische Kritik des hebräischen Alterthums insbesondere der offenbarungsgeschichte (a historical criticism of the Hebrew antiquity, especially the history of revelation)."
Editions and translations
Published in Berlin [Germany]: C. Heymann, 1879.
Contents
Einleitung
Erster Theil - Historisch kritische Analyse der alttestamentlichen Offenbarongsgeschichte
- Erster Abschnitt - Die historische Kritik des hebräischen Alterthums
- Zweiter Abschnitt - Kritik der Quelle
- Dritter Abschnitt - Allgemeine Bestimmung des historischen Charakters der einzelnen Epochen
- Vierter Abschnitt - Der Ursprung der Sagen von Abraham Isaak und Jakob (Abraham)
- Fünfter Abschnitt - Der Ursprung der Sagen von Abraham Isaak und Jakob (Isaak)
- Sechster Abschnitt - Der Ursprung der Sagen von Abraham Isaak und Jakob (Jakob/Israel)