STRACK, HERMANN LEBRECHT. – Protestant exegete and Orientalist who, while remaining a “positive theologian,” made very broad concessions to the most audacious criticism; b. 6 May 1848 in Berlin, where in 1872 he became a teacher at the Wilhelmsgymnasium, in 1877 extraordinary professor at the University, and in 1910 honorary professor; d. 5 October 1922.
He acquired outstanding merit in three fields: a) Hebrew and Aramaic philology; b) exegesis of the Old Testament; c) the study of Judaism. a) He wrote: Hebräische Grammatik (Karlsruhe 1883; 14th ed. edited by A. Jepsen, Leipzig 1930); Hebräisches Vokabularium (Munich 1896; 8th ed. 1907); Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen (ibid. 1896; 6th ed. 1921), etc.; he directed two series of grammars of Oriental languages: Porta linguarum Orientalium (Leipzig, for the years 1885–1901) and Clavis linguarum Semiticarum (Leipzig 1906–22). b) His best-known philological and critical commentaries are: Katalog der hebr. Bibelhandschriften in St. Petersburg (St Petersburg 1875, with A. Harkavy); Prophetarum posteriorum Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (ibid. 1876); Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Leipzig 1886; 6th ed. 1906); together with O. Zöckler, he founded and directed the Kurzgefasster Kommentar zu der hl. Schrift des Alten und Neuen Testaments (9 vols., Munich 1886 ff.), for which he composed Genesis, Evodus, Leviticus, Numeri (1894; 2nd ed. 1905) and Sprüche Salomos (1888; 2nd ed. 1899). c) He was devoted to the science of Judaism, not only for theoretical reasons; in 1885 he founded and directed until his death the “Institutum Iudaicum” of the University of Berlin, a seminary for the study of postbiblical Jewish literature and history and, while he was its director, also for the training of Protestant missionaries to the Jews (a similar institute was founded in Leipzig in 1886 by Franz Delitzsch [v.]); as director of this institute he founded the journal Nathanael, Zeitschrift für die Arbeit der evangelischen Kirche an Israel (Leipzig 1885 ff.); in addition, the important series Schriften des Institutum Iudaicum Berolinense (Leipzig 1886–1922; 43 numbers), a series containing:
1) biographies of Jews converted to Protestantism; 2) numerous writings antisemitism (v.), e.g., Rohling (v.), not without harsh polemic; 3) writings still valuable today for the science of Judaism, first and foremost Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch (Leipzig 1887, 5th ed. Munich 1920), which has not yet been surpassed; in addition: Das Blut im Glauben und Aberglauben der Völker (ibid. 1891; 8th ed. 1911); Das Wesen des Judentums (ibid. 1906); Jesus, die Häretiker und die Christen nach ältesten jüdischen Angaben (1910); Jüdische Geheimgesetze (Berlin 1920; 5th ed. 1925, etc.); earlier he had begun the series Mischnatraktate (Leipzig 1882 ff., from 1906 with a German translation), in which he published Joma, Aboda Zara, Pirge Aboth, Sabbath, Sanhedrin, Makhoth, Pesahiu, Berahoth, as well as Talmud Babylonicum codicis Monacensis 95 arte phototypica depingendum curavit H.L.S. (2 vols., plus 1 vol. Introductio, Leiden 1912). The Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Munich 1922–28), the most complete collection of rabbinic material illustrating the New Testament, bears his name; but the work is entirely due to P. Billerbeck (v.), and S.’s merit lies only in having suggested this important work to Billerbeck, his faithful collaborator on Nathanael, assisting him with advice and proofreading.