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Kaufmann, Yehezkel

Kaufmann, Yehezkel
Yehezkel Kaufmann (18891963) was one of the
greatest Jewish biblical scholars and historians of
modern times. A prolific writer, he is best known
for his monumental study of biblical religion and
its history, Toledot ha-emunah ha-yire!elit (193756,
A History of the Israelite Faith). His influence is
manifest in the writings of distinguished Jewish
biblicists of the succeeding generations such as
Moshe Greenberg (19282010), Menahem Haran
(19242015), Jacob Milgrom (19232010), Yochanan Muffs (19322009), Nahum Sarna (19232005),
and Moshe Weinfeld (19252009).
Kaufmann was a major Jewish proponent of the
Documentary Hypothesis. He objected to Wellhausens historical account especially, the notion
of the Bible as a legacy of a minority phenomenon
in ancient Israel, reflecting a gradual evolution of
monotheism from polytheism, or a primitive, natural religion, during the biblical period. Instead,
Kaufmann asserted that the Bible is a collective
product of ancient Israel, reflecting monotheism as
a popular phenomenon from the beginning of the
biblical period and as a religion fundamentally different from any other in antiquity. In his view, biblical monotheism is predicated on a revolutionary
idea of Gods absolute and unlimited will an idea
that has no antecedents in human history. Kaufmann also argued for the early dating of the
Priestly source.
Kaufmanns exhaustive critique of theoretical
and theological assumptions still dominant in biblical scholarship calls into question how to engage in
biblical criticism. This critique has yet to receive the
attention it deserves.
Bibliography: Green, E., Universalism and Nationalism
as Reflected in the Writings of Yehezkel Kaufmann with
Special Emphasis on the Biblical Period (PhD diss.; New
York University, 1968). Jindo, J. Y., Recontextualizing
Kaufmann: His Empirical Conception of the Bible and its
Significance in Jewish Intellectual History, Journal of Jewish
Thought and Philosophy 19 (2011) 95129. Jindo, J. Y. et al.
(eds.), Yehezkel Kaufmann and the Reinvention of Jewish Biblical
Scholarship (Fribourg). [Forthcoming] Kaufmann, Y., Golah we-nekhar [Exile and Alienation], 2 vols. (Tel Aviv 1928
32). Kaufmann, Y., The Religion of Israel: From its Beginnings
to the Babylonian Exile (trans. M. Greenberg; Chicago, Ill.
1960); abridged trans. of id., Toledot ha-emunah ha-yire!elit,
vols 13 (Tel Aviv 193748). Kaufmann, Y., History of the
Religion of Israel, from the Babylonian Captivity to the End of
Prophecy (trans. C. Efroymsen; New York 1977); trans. of id.,
Toledot ha-emunah ha-yire!elit, vol. 4 (Tel-Aviv 1955).
Krapf, T., Die Priesterschrift und die vorexilische Zeit (Freiburg
i.Br. 1992). Schweid, E., A History of Modern Jewish Religious Philosophy, 5 vols. (Leiden). [Forthcoming] [Esp. vol. 5,
ch. 6] Weinfeld, M., The Place of the Law in the Religion of
Ancient Israel (Leiden 2004). [Esp. chs. 14]

Job Y. Jindo

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 14 ( Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2016)