Bernhard Duhm

Bernhard Lauardus Duhm (October 10, 1847 – November 1, 1928) was a German Lutheran theologian, born in Bingum, today part of Leer, East Frisia.

Duhm is remembered for his exegetical work on the prophets of the Old Testament, particularly studies dealing with the complexities of the Books of Jeremiah and Isaiah.

He pioneered the theory of multiple authors of the Book of Isaiah and was the first to identify its servant songs as such.

[1] Joseph Blenkinsopp summarizes Duhm's theories of the servant songs and their reception in modern academia; His conclusions may be summarized as follows: the "Servant songs" were composed by a member of a Jewish community, but not of the diaspora, during the first half of the fifth century, between the composition of Job and Malachi; the author drew on Jeremiah, Deutero-Isaiah, and Job and in his turn influenced Trito-Isaiah and Malachi; the protagonist of the "songs" was a historical figure, a teacher of the law who suffered abuse, first of all from his own people; the "songs" are distinguished from their Deutero-Isaian context by a more deliberate and sober style, more regular prosody, and especially by the contrast with Deutero-Isaiah's description of Israel as ebed they originally formed one composition, together with editorial additions (42:5-7; 50:10-11); they were inserted into Deutero-Isaiah by a later hand wherever there was space on the papyrus copy.

Bernhard Duhm died in Basel on November 1, 1928 as the result of car accident.