When evaluating the work of a scholarly discipline, understanding the symbolic world—the though world—of the scholars it is necessary to understand the time in which they live. Since my work over the last 8–9 years have been to understand of German exegetes construct Jews and Judaism, I also need to explore their views of ethnicity, nation, and how they look at other ethnic groups.
The picture above is of a fascinating painting by Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840), who more than any other painter represents the German Romanticism. The two men, seen from the back, are standing in awe before a nature which is animated by the presence od something higher, which to Friedrich was the Creator God. In his pictures, Friedrich not only confesses a fascination to the nature, but also a Christian faith. Therefore it is not correct to make him a pantheist, nor to make Nazi interpretations of him. But nevertheless, it come from a Germany, right after the Napoleon wars, where the establishing and strengthening of a national identity is of key importance. One main movement for this goal was the Burschenschaften, student organisations, who were forerunners for German nationalism. The hats on the heads of the two men were by the time of the painting prohibited in Germany. It represented the longing for a unified Germany, an idea which was among the most urgent and dominant in German history during the 19th century. To wear the costume was a confession indeed (see http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de:90/ulb_bonn/diss_online/phil_fak/2002/schneider_eva_maria/0083_1.pdf).
What has this with exegesis to do? Nothing with the New Testament text, but definitely with the symbolic world of the interpreters. In this nationalistic wave, Jews and Judaism also became more and more of a foreign element. As Herder had put it, describing the Jews:
For thousands of years, yes, almost since its inception, God’s people [. . .] has been a parasitic plant on the trunks of
other nations—a race of shrewd negotiators, almost all over the world,
which despite all oppression never longs for its own honour and abode,
never for a homeland.
For example, de Wette was deeply inspired by the nationalistic movement emanating from the national revival after the Napoleonic wars. And this affects his exegetical positions. More about this in my chapter on de Wette and Herder in my book Roots of theological anti-Semitism.
No shadow over Caspar David Friedrich for this—but it is interesting how the early nationalistic movement of Germany expresses itself in art. Including the costume. For me, looking at a great exhibition of Friedrich’s art was part of my on-going search for keys to the symbolic worlds of the German exegetes who formed modern exegesis and its views of Jews and Judaism.
Photo: © The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, 2009