Thirty-five professors of theology in Dutch universities have voiced severe criticism of the late German Assyriologist, Friedrich Delitzsch, in connection with the recent publication in Dutch of Delitzsch’s anti-Semitic work, “The Great Falsification”, in which an attempt is made to show that Judaism has never contributed anything towards world culture and civilization and that even the Creation story and other Biblical history is merely a reproduction from Babylonian sources.
An inquiry sent by one of the large Amsterdam newspapers to professors of theology in the universities of Amsterdam, Leydon, Utrecht, Nymegen and Groeningen elicited many responses.
Professor Frances of Nymegen University stated, “I regret that a man of such scientific importance as Delitzsch was, has lowered himself by producing a work which is insolent to religious Jews and Christians alike and, at the same time, is so unscientific.”
Professor Dr. Geesink of Amsterdam University stated: “Only the gloomy fanaticism of a renegade could speak with such blasphemy of the Old Testament as Friedrich Delitzsch in his ‘Falsification’.”
Professor J. Th. Obbink, of Utrecht University stated: “As a man of letters Delitzsch could not have compromised himself more than he does in this pamphlet.”
Professor J. P. Stoffes of Nymegen University declared: “Although the services rendered by Professor Delitzsch in the field of philology were great, his excursions into religion and philosophy are regrettable. ‘The Great Falsification’ is incredulous in its prejudice, which rests entirely on racial anti-Semitism.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
