Background
Paul Haupt was born on November 25, 1858, in Görlitz, Germany, the son of Karl Gottlieb and Elise (Hülse) Haupt.
philologist translator scholars
Paul Haupt was born on November 25, 1858, in Görlitz, Germany, the son of Karl Gottlieb and Elise (Hülse) Haupt.
Paul was graduated from the Gymnasium at Görlitz in 1876 and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leipzig in 1878. He was the most distinguished pupil of Friedrich Delitzsch, the Assyriologist. After taking his degree he spent two years in study at the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin and in the British Museum.
Paul Haupt was privat-docent in Assyriology, 1880-1883, at the University of Göttingen, and then promoted to a professorship. In the same year, he became Spence Professor of Semitic Languages and director of the Oriental Seminary at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a position which he held until his death. Until 1889 he also maintained his connection with the University of Göttingen, but after that date devoted himself wholly to his American work. At various times he held honorary curatorships in the United States National Museum in Washington.
Haupt was a prolific author, the list of his publications includes 522 titles. His third publication, Die Sumerischen Familiengesetze (1879), attracted wide attention, and his various studies of the Gilgamesh Epic, which he called the Babylonian Nimrodepos, made him for years the chief interpreter of that oldest of epics.
Haupt was, however, much more than an Assyriologist. Few men have had a wider or more accurate knowledge of the various Semitic languages and dialects, or a keener philological sense. Had he chosen to write a comparative Semitic grammar, it would have been a masterly production. His articles on this subject invariably reveal the breadth and accuracy of his knowledge and the keenness of his insight.
Many of his publications were in the field of Old Testament criticism, including The Sacred Books of the Old Testament. Of this work, only six volumes - Leviticus, Joshua, Judges, The Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel - appeared in English, for the publishers found the undertaking unprofitable. Sixteen volumes of the subsidized Hebrew edition made their appearance. The volumes were prepared by various scholars, but Haupt as editor furnished numerous notes for each book. He also published Biblical Love - Ditties (1902); The Book of Canticles (1902); Koheleth (1905); The Book of Ecclesiastes (1905); Purxm (1906); The Book of Nahum (1907); Biblische Liebeslieder (1907); Jonah’s Whale (1907); The Book of Esther (1908); The Aryan Ancestry of Jesus (1909); The Burning Bush and the Origin of Judaism (1910); The Book of Micah (1910); and numerous articles of a similar character in various journals.
Haupt's contributions to Biblical criticism are, however, inferior to his work in Assyriology and Semitic philology. In the nature of the case, the “Polychrome Bible” could only record the opinions of a scholar and editor at a given moment of time. In many instances, too, the notes inserted by the editor are somewhat irrelevant. In such works as Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Nahum, Micah, and in his articles on the Psalms, Haupt’s limitations as a Biblical critic are most apparent. He could not discriminate between what his fertile imagination suggested as possible and what sound critical principles allow one to accept as probable. He was of the opinion, too, that Hebrew poets always wrote in rigid metrical forms, which later editors spoiled by insertions, but which he was able to restore; hence, instead of interpreting an Old Testament text he usually rewrote it. This habit, together with the notion that much Old Testament literature originated in the Maccabaean period, vitiated all his critical work. If his literary and historical judgment had been as good as his philological judgment, he would have been a great Biblical scholar. As it was, however, his works are not safe guides in this field.
Paul Haupt was one of the pioneers of Assyriology in the United States. He introduced the principle of the neogrammarians into Semitic philology and discovered the Sumerian language in 1880. His best-known work in Assyriology was edition and translation of The Sacred Books of the Old Testament (1893 - 1904), commonly known as the “Polychrome Bible” because the various documents which critics find in the books were printed on a background of different colors.
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On June 9, 1884, Paul Haupt married Margaret Giede, who died on August 19 of that year. On March 8, 1886, he married Minna Giede.
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