Friedrich Delitzsch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friedrich Delitzsch (September 3, 1850 - December 19, 1922) was a German Assyriologist who was a native of Erlangen. He studied in Leipzig and Berlin, and in 1874 was habilitated as a lecturer of Semitic languages and Assyriology in Leipzig. In 1885 he became a "full professor" at Leipzig, and afterwards a professor at the Universities of Breslau (1893) and Berlin (1899). He was co-founder of the Deutschen Orientgesellschaft (German Oriental Society) and director of the Vorderasiatischen Abteilung (Near Eastern Department) of the Royal Museums. He was the son of Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890).

Friedrich Delitzsch specialized in the study of ancient Middle Eastern languages, and published numerous works on Assyrian language, history and culture. He is remembered today for his scholarly critique of the Biblical Old Testament. In a 1902 controversial lecture titled "Babel and Bible", Delitzsch maintained that many Old Testament writings were borrowed from ancient Babylonian tales, including the stories of Creation and the Great Flood. During the following years there were several translations and modified versions of the "Babel and Bible". In the early 1920s, Delitzsch published the two-part Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception), which was a critical treatise on the book of Psalms, prophets of the Old Testament, the invasion of Canaan, etc. Delitzsch also placed great emphasis on the historical inaccuracies and immoralities of the Old Testament.