Jakob Barth

Jakob Barth (born March 3, 1851 in Flehingen ; died October 24, 1914 in Berlin ) was a German-Jewish orientalist .

Life

As a teenager he learned the Talmud , among other things from his future father-in-law Esriel Hildesheimer . He studied Semitic philology at the University of Berlin , the University of Leipzig (with HL Fleischer ) and the University of Strasbourg (with Theodor Nöldeke ). In 1876 he was given a teaching position for Semitic philology at the University of Berlin and in 1880 an assistant professor. As a Jew, he was denied a full professorship, but received the title of a secret councilor. Barth was one of the most important orientalists of his time; Two of his works are still regarded as standard reference works today: The formation of nouns in the Semitic languages (1894) and The formation of pronomals in the Semitic languages (1918). These works, as well as his etymological studies on the Semitic, especially the Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon (1902) contain far-fetched etymologies and excessive schematization, but testify to the author's talent for discovering linguistic analogies . Barth was also one of the most important Arabists of his time. He published grammatical, poetic and historical texts as well as Maimonides' commentary on the mixed natractic "Makkot" (1880). As an Orthodox Jew , he avoided the use of biblical criticism , but accepted the authorship of a second Isaiah ( Deutero-Isaiah ) from chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah , which in his opinion was supported by the Talmud.

From 1874 until his death he taught Hebrew, Biblical Exegesis and Jewish philosophy at the orthodox rabbinical seminary founded by E. Hildesheimer in Berlin. His commentary on almost all the books in the Bible, which arose from his lectures at the rabbinical seminary, has not yet been published.

His sons Aharon Barth (1890–1957) and Elieser (Lazar) Barth (1880–1949) were both leading Zionists within the Orthodox Misrachi movement. Aharon Barth was General Manager of Anglo-Palestine Bank , later Bank Leumi , from 1947 until his death .

literature

• Encyclopedia Judaica , Vol. 4, pp. 262-263.
• Hans Wehr:  Barth, Jakob. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 603 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Barth, Jakob. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 1: A-Benc. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-598-22681-0 , pp. 356-358.

Web links

• Literature by and about Jakob Barth in the catalog of the German National Library