Applying the comparative mythology of his day, the young Goldziher argues that the Hebrews, like every other people, once had a mythology, and that the figures of Genesis — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph — preserve its traces. He follows how nomadic and agricultural life, the awakening national idea, prophetic monotheism and the Babylonian exile transformed these myths.
A bold, now dated work by a scholar later celebrated for his studies of Islam, valuable for the history of biblical criticism. Download the free EPUB.