Arabic Bible Scholarship

Rödiger, Emil. De origine et indole Arabicae librorum V.T. historicorum interpretationis libri duo.

€ 850,00

First edition of Rödiger's thesis that earned its author the right to lecture in theology as well as a professorship of oriental languages at the University of Halle. Rödiger (1801-74) denied that the Arabic version of the Old Testament's historical books was derived from the Alexandrian translation: instead, he proved that the Arabic translation of the Book of Judges, Ruth, and the Books of Samuel as well as of several parts of the Books of Kings and of Nehemiah as published in the Paris and London Polyglots was based on the Syriac Bible and constituted the work of several Christian writers of the 13th and 14th centuries. Other parts of the Books of Kings and of Nehemiah, he showed, were translated into Arabic by an 11-century Jewish author directly from the Hebrew text.

Some browning and foxing throughout. Old French library stamps to title-page. Spine reinforced with later paper. Uncut, untrimmed copy.