Marcus Kalisch (or Moritz) (May 16, 1828 – August 25, 1885) was a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish scholar born in

Treptow Treptow () was a former borough in the southeast of Berlin. It merged with Köpenick to form Treptow-Köpenick in 2001. Geography The district was composed by the localities of Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald, Baumschulenweg, Niederschönewei ...

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, and died in

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. He was educated at

Berlin University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt ...

, where he studied classics,

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

, and the

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...

s, and at the Rabbinical College of

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. In 1848 he obtained degrees at Berlin and at Halle, and in the same year took part in the

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an struggle for freedom that resulted in the émeute of 1848. He was one of the pioneers of the critical study of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

in England. At one time he was secretary to the

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; in 1853 he became tutor in the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...

and enjoyed leisure to produce his commentaries and other works. The first installment of his commentary on the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

was '' Exodus'' (1855); this was followed by ''

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

'' (1858) and '' Leviticus'' in two parts (1867–1872). These contain a résumé of all that Jewish and

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learning had accumulated on the subjects up to the dates of publication. Kalisch wrote before the publication of

Julius Wellhausen Julius Wellhausen (17 May 1844 – 7 January 1918) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist. In the course of his career, his research interest moved from Old Testament research through Islamic studies to New Testament scholarship. Wellhau ...

's works, and anticipated him in some important points. Besides these works, Kalisch published in 1877–1878 two volumes of

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

studies (on

Balaam Balaam (;; ; ), son of Beor, was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a non-Israelite prophet and diviner who lived in Pethor, a place identified with the ancient city of Pitru, thought to have been located between the region of Iraq and norther ...

and

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

). He was also author of a once popular

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

grammar in two volumes (1862–1863). In 1880 he published ''Path and Goal'', a brilliant discussion of human destiny. He also wrote Historical and critical commentary on the Old Testament in four volumes. His commentaries are of permanent value, not only because of the author's originality, but also because of his exceptional erudition. However, he did lack an equal power of using his resources for literary purposes. Still, his views on biblical and Jewish subjects generally were of an advanced type. No other works in English contain such full citations of earlier literature. He was prevented from completing his projected comprehensive commentary on the entire Pentateuch by the ill health which attended his last years.

References

Jewish Encyclopedia
*
Historical and critical commentary on the Old Testament, with a new translation: Genesis : Kalisch, Marcus Moritz, 1825-1885
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalisch, Marcus 1828 births 1885 deaths 19th-century British writers 19th-century Jewish biblical scholars German biblical scholars British biblical scholars Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni 19th-century German Jews People from the Province of Pomerania People from Trzebiatów