Weimar Christians Germanize the Old Testament

Arts, Philosophy, Spirituality & Wisdom
User avatar
Luigi
Posts: 4234
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:01 pm
Reputation: 2931

Weimar Christians Germanize the Old Testament

Postby Luigi » Tue May 25, 2021 1:03 am

I stumbled on this today. Apparently back in 1923 German churchmen were feeling quite conflicted about preaching the old testament due to its clearly Jewish character. This apparently lead Heinrich Lhotzky to rewrite the old testament with all Hebrew names and terms replaced with German origin terms and names. Max Maurenbrecher, a commenter from the time sums up their mindset:

“Many German Nationals” he writes “will regard the book as a solution of their present difficulty, inasmuch as we must reject the Holy Scriptures in so far as they are the Scriptures of the Jewish people. The difficulty is solved when we realize that the Old Testament is greater than Judaism, that it is the revelation of a vast power which was not really understood by the Jews and which Judaism has brought to degeneration. Many clergymen after reading this book will again have the courage to preach from Old Testament texts. All National teachers to whom the Biblical stories have hitherto been a difficulty will find in this book now to tell the Old Testament stories to Germans and make them live.”


So seemingly this was quite satisfying to them lol Apparently they had no problem ignoring that Jesus and all his friends were Jewish. Interesting though that as early as 1923 this was part of popular thought to this extent. It reminds we of a decade later when the Germans labelled Charlemagne the slayer of Saxons and built a memorial to his victims, but then couldnt help themselves in clinging to him as a culture hero. Its all a little bit sad really, like a victim rationalizing the actions of their abuser.

http://pdfs.jta.org/1923/1923-04-06_068.pdf
Image

User avatar
Edge Guerrero
Posts: 8287
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:14 am
Reputation: 3064
Location: Smackdown Hotel at "the corner of Know Your Role Blvd

Postby Edge Guerrero » Tue May 25, 2021 12:11 pm

- That's interesting. But not surprising
- I rent this space for advertising

Don't be selfish, preserve this world for the next generations.

I'll never long for what might have been
Regret won't waste my life again
I won't look back I'll fight to remain

User avatar
Masato
Site Admin
Posts: 18295
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:16 pm
Reputation: 8226

Postby Masato » Fri May 28, 2021 1:53 pm

Luigi wrote:I stumbled on this today. Apparently back in 1923 German churchmen were feeling quite conflicted about preaching the old testament due to its clearly Jewish character. This apparently lead Heinrich Lhotzky to rewrite the old testament with all Hebrew names and terms replaced with German origin terms and names. Max Maurenbrecher, a commenter from the time sums up their mindset:

“Many German Nationals” he writes “will regard the book as a solution of their present difficulty, inasmuch as we must reject the Holy Scriptures in so far as they are the Scriptures of the Jewish people. The difficulty is solved when we realize that the Old Testament is greater than Judaism, that it is the revelation of a vast power which was not really understood by the Jews and which Judaism has brought to degeneration. Many clergymen after reading this book will again have the courage to preach from Old Testament texts. All National teachers to whom the Biblical stories have hitherto been a difficulty will find in this book now to tell the Old Testament stories to Germans and make them live.”


So seemingly this was quite satisfying to them lol Apparently they had no problem ignoring that Jesus and all his friends were Jewish. Interesting though that as early as 1923 this was part of popular thought to this extent. It reminds we of a decade later when the Germans labelled Charlemagne the slayer of Saxons and built a memorial to his victims, but then couldnt help themselves in clinging to him as a culture hero. Its all a little bit sad really, like a victim rationalizing the actions of their abuser.

http://pdfs.jta.org/1923/1923-04-06_068.pdf


That is fantastic Luigi. You find some cool stuff, not enough appreciation here for the things you share.

Not much in that PDF about it though... I wanted to know what names they used to replace the characters. 'Urd' is Abraham, but what name did they choose for Jesus?? LOL it would be funny almost no matter what they picked lol

This is interesting because as a fan of mythology, it is sometimes argued that the value of these stories is not in specific historical fact, but in the underlying truths the myths sort of POINT towards, not even really the story itself. A proper myth can be told in different ways and still give the same message, nothing is diminished.

I've also heard it argued that the much of the biblical myths are actually found in myths that PRE-date it, that a much older story was re-packaged into Jewish/Christian culture from old Egyptian myths etc... exactly as the Germans did in the link you sent.

I kind of like this idea.


User avatar
Luigi
Posts: 4234
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:01 pm
Reputation: 2931

Postby Luigi » Fri May 28, 2021 3:07 pm

Masato wrote:
Luigi wrote:I stumbled on this today. Apparently back in 1923 German churchmen were feeling quite conflicted about preaching the old testament due to its clearly Jewish character. This apparently lead Heinrich Lhotzky to rewrite the old testament with all Hebrew names and terms replaced with German origin terms and names. Max Maurenbrecher, a commenter from the time sums up their mindset:

“Many German Nationals” he writes “will regard the book as a solution of their present difficulty, inasmuch as we must reject the Holy Scriptures in so far as they are the Scriptures of the Jewish people. The difficulty is solved when we realize that the Old Testament is greater than Judaism, that it is the revelation of a vast power which was not really understood by the Jews and which Judaism has brought to degeneration. Many clergymen after reading this book will again have the courage to preach from Old Testament texts. All National teachers to whom the Biblical stories have hitherto been a difficulty will find in this book now to tell the Old Testament stories to Germans and make them live.”


So seemingly this was quite satisfying to them lol Apparently they had no problem ignoring that Jesus and all his friends were Jewish. Interesting though that as early as 1923 this was part of popular thought to this extent. It reminds we of a decade later when the Germans labelled Charlemagne the slayer of Saxons and built a memorial to his victims, but then couldnt help themselves in clinging to him as a culture hero. Its all a little bit sad really, like a victim rationalizing the actions of their abuser.

http://pdfs.jta.org/1923/1923-04-06_068.pdf


That is fantastic Luigi. You find some cool stuff, not enough appreciation here for the things you share.

Not much in that PDF about it though... I wanted to know what names they used to replace the characters. 'Urd' is Abraham, but what name did they choose for Jesus?? LOL it would be funny almost no matter what they picked lol

This is interesting because as a fan of mythology, it is sometimes argued that the value of these stories is not in specific historical fact, but in the underlying truths the myths sort of POINT towards, not even really the story itself. A proper myth can be told in different ways and still give the same message, nothing is diminished.

I've also heard it argued that the much of the biblical myths are actually found in myths that PRE-date it, that a much older story was re-packaged into Jewish/Christian culture from old Egyptian myths etc... exactly as the Germans did in the link you sent.

I kind of like this idea.


The widely accepted example of this is the flood myth, where the Bible is very clearly consulting the Babylonian original and selectively omitting some details and Hebrewizing others. Not to say that the Hebrews didnt originally have their own version, but if so they must have seen the Babylonians as a greater authority on the matter.
Image

User avatar
Masato
Site Admin
Posts: 18295
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:16 pm
Reputation: 8226

Postby Masato » Fri May 28, 2021 4:41 pm

The Jesus story too, the virgin birth, 3 kings (stars),. the dying for 3 days and resurrecting, 12 apostles etc etc etc

Lots of people say this is a template from a much older myth, maybe astrological in root

User avatar
Masato
Site Admin
Posts: 18295
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:16 pm
Reputation: 8226

Postby Masato » Fri May 28, 2021 4:41 pm

Could the hebrew bible just be a massive hijacking /re-branding of history ?>??

User avatar
Masato
Site Admin
Posts: 18295
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:16 pm
Reputation: 8226

Postby Masato » Fri May 28, 2021 4:42 pm

Still wanna know what Germanic Jesus' name was lol

User avatar
Luigi
Posts: 4234
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:01 pm
Reputation: 2931

Postby Luigi » Fri May 28, 2021 5:48 pm

Masato wrote:Still wanna know what Germanic Jesus' name was lol

They were only concerned with the Old Testament, although there are apparently minor figures in the Old Testament named Yeshua. The simple way to Germanize it is to take the already Latinized Jesus and simply replace the Latin masculine nominative suffix with a proto-Germanic one, which would yield Jesaz, with the J being pronounced like a Y. Predicting sound changes to modern German you might expect something like Jar or Jarre. If they were trying to semantically translate the original meaning of the name though they would be translating "Yahweh is salvation" which Im guessing would be Germanized as "Woden is salvation". In proto-Germanic that would be something like Wodanaz isti Sparandz. Maybe you could contract it to Wosparandz or something like that. With modern German sound changes maybe something like Wosparen(Vosparen).
Image


Return to “Creative Sanctuary”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 45 guests