Benno Jacob

The distinguished German-Jewish biblical scholar Benno Jacob is best known for his major commentaries on the Book of Genesis (1934) and the Book of Exodus (published posthumously in 1997). Both commentaries are widely discussed in research on the Pentateuch and are now regarded as “classics of scriptural interpretation.”

Since 2013, the extensive literary estate of Benno Jacob has been studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (project director: Shimon Gesundheit). Beginning in 2017, this work developed into a collaboration with the edition project Beyond the Pentateuch Crisis, funded by the German Research Foundation. The six-year project aimed to make previously unpublished manuscripts and fragments accessible to contemporary scholarly debate through a critical, annotated edition and thereby enrich methodological discussions. In June 2021, the project's first volume was published, bringing together Jacob’s early Pentateuch studies on the problem of divine names, on classical source criticism, and on the history of biblical scholarship.

The second phase of the project focused on the manuscripts and fragments on the Book of Leviticus from all periods of Jacob’s scholarly career. These exegetical writings connect with his early Pentateuch studies as well as with the major commentaries on Genesis and Exodus, while also complementing them.

Benno Jacob’s interpretation of the Pentateuchal text as a linguistic work of art, together with his forceful critique of contemporary diachronic research, offers important points of engagement as well as productive tensions. Extensive introductions and annotations situate the manuscripts within the context of Jacob’s intellectual biography and scholarly history. On this basis, Benno Jacob’s exegesis of Leviticus was made accessible in light of the current state of research, and its significance elaborated for contemporary models of the Pentateuch’s formation as well as for historically and canonically oriented approaches, thus rendering it fruitful for current Pentateuch scholarship.

Project Team

Project Coordination:
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Gregor Kratz

Research Associate:
Hans-Christoph Aurin