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Chapter 13
Concepts of Scripture in
Yehezkel Kaufmann
Job Y. Jindo
Th e empirical conception of the Bible fostered during the Enlightenment
advanced the notion that “the Bible is not the key to nature but a part of it;
it must therefore be considered according to the same rules as hold for any
kind of empirical knowledge.”1 Th e notion of the Bible as artifact entails a
paradigm shift for those who regard it as Scripture — it challenges them to
reconsider their own understanding of this foundational text, which gives
structure to their very mode of existence.2 Th is conception of the Bible,
which purports to be free of traditional, theological presumptions, puts in
question not only the Mosaic origin of the Torah but the very existence of
the biblical God (if the Bible is a human creation, the God it portrays may
also be a human creation, that is, a fi gment of the human imagination). No
wonder, then, that engagement in biblical criticism by traditional Jews is,
to this day, limited. In this respect, it is worthwhile considering the case
of Yehezkel Kaufmann (1889 – 1963), oft en referred to as “the greatest and
most infl uential Jewish biblical scholar of modern times,”3 who authored
a magisterial four-volume historical-sociological interpretation of Jewish
history, Golah ve-nekhar (Exile and Alienation, 1928 – 32; henceforth Go-
lah) and a monumental four-volume study of biblical religion and history,
Toledot ha’emunah hayisre’elit (A History of the Israelite Faith, 1937 – 56;
henceforth Toledot).4
Although raised in a traditional Jewish family, Kaufmann fully endorsed
the empirical notion of the Bible.5 He understood the Bible not liter-
ally as the living word of God but rather as a historical artifact produced
in a particular setting of time and place. For him, the Bible was a text to