Beyond the Crisis in Pentateuchal Studies: Benno Jacob as Instigator for Modern Pentateuchal Exegesis

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Benno Jacob's (1862–1945) posthumously published Exodus Commentary (1997) and his re-published Genesis Commentary (2000, first published in 1934) are widely and positively received in Pentateuch scholarship: Both commentaries are called "Classic Literature of Bible Interpretation". His works on a Leviticus Commentary are previously unpublished and therefore almost unknown. They are part of Benno Jacob's literary estate, which was catalogued and partly transcribed by Prof. Dr. Shimon Gesundheit and Dr. Hans-Christoph Aurin at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 2013 to 2017. Subsequent to this preparatory work, a first phase of this DFG-project (2017–2020) allowed the resulting fundamental, early Pentateuch studies to be edited, commented on and placed in dialogue with current research. The result, i.e. Benno Jacob’s manuscripts on the problem of the names of God, on source criticism in particular and on historical-critical research and exege-sis in general, among other things, will be published in 2020 with Calwer-Verlag. Following the successful publication of this volume, the project can now turn its attention to his commentaries on Lev 1–3; 8 and 17–20 as well as thematic essays on this book. In 1941, while in exile in London, Benno Jacob wrote about his work on the book Leviticus: "I have succeeded in untangling even the most intricate knots. One cannot believe how interesting this supposedly dry matter is and (literally!) how tasty it is." This work also led him to revise his interpretations in the Exodus commentary several times. Among other things, he decided to comment on the ordination described in Exodus 29 only in connection with Leviticus 8. The publication of this interpretation and the other manuscripts from the estate of Benno Jacob thus completes his influential Exodus Commentary and offers new exegetical perspectives on the so-called Priestly Writing (Priesterschrift) and the Holiness Code. Benno Jacob’s interpretation of the text as a linguistic work of art and his vehement criticism of diachronic research offer important points of reference both for historically critical and canonically working exegetes. To make the work easier to access, detailed introductions will be prepared for all manu-scripts – as in the first phase of the project – which will show both the state of research at the time of Benno Jacob and the current state of research and will bring Benno Jacob’s textual observations and interpretations into dialogue with the current scholarly discourse. In addition to the introductions, the manuscripts will again be annotated by footnotes.