STRACK, HERMANN LEBRECHT. - Protestant exegete and orientalist who, while remaining a “positive theologian,” made wide concessions to the most daring criticism. Born on 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; died on 5 October 1922.
He earned outstanding merits in three fields: a) in Hebrew and Aramaic philology; b) in Old Testament exegesis; c) as a scholar of Judaism.
a) He wrote: *Hebräische Grammatik* (Karlsruhe 1883; 14th ed. ed. A. Jepsen, Leipzig 1930); *Hebräisches Vokabular* (Munich 1896; 8th ed. 1907); *Grammatik des Biblischen Aramaica* (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); he founded and directed with O. Zöckler the *Kurzgefasster Kommentar zu der hl. Schrift des Alten und Neuen Testaments* (9 vols., Munich 1886 ff.), for which he composed *Genesis*, *Exodus*, *Leviticus*, *Numeri* (1894; 2nd ed. 1905) and *Sprüche Salomos* (1888; 2nd ed. 1899).
c) He devoted himself to the science of Judaism, not merely for theoretical reasons; in 1883 he founded and directed until his death the *Institutum Judaicum* of the University of Berlin, a seminar for the study of post-biblical Jewish literature and history, and, while 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.); he also founded the important series *Schriften des Institutum Judaicum Berolinense* (Leipzig 1886–1922; 43 issues), which contains:
1) biographies of Jews converted to Protestantism;
2) numerous writings in defense of Jews against the accusations of anti-Semitism (v.), e.g., Rohling (v.), not lacking in polemical spirit;
3) writings still valuable today for the science of Judaism, above all the *Einleitung in Talmud und Mischna* (Leipzig 1887, 5th ed. Munich 1920), still unsurpassed; also: *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 German translation), in which he published *Aboth*, *Aboda Zara*, *Pirqe Aboth*, *Sabbath*, *Sanhedrin*, *Makkoth*, *Pesahim*, *Berakhoth*, besides *Talmud Babylonicum codicis Monacensis 95 arte phototypica depingendum curavit H.L.S.* (2 vols. + 1 vol. Introduction, Leiden 1912).
The *Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Mischna* (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. BILERBECK, PAUL (v.), and S.’s merit consists solely in having suggested the important undertaking to Billerbeck, his faithful collaborator in *Nathanael*, assisting him with advice and revision.