1867 anti-Semite

[Shapiro, Fred]

Stephen knows far more than I do about theology, I surmise, so maybe he can answer this question:  Does it appear that, before modern "anti-Semitism," there was a theological bifurcation of Semitic vs. Aryan (corresponding partially to Old Testament vs. New Testament?), with anthropological elements as well, and that modern "anti-Semitism" was a development of the earlier theo-anthropological bifurcation?  Modern anti-Semitism apparently used some of the same terminology as the earlier version, but may be distinguished from it.  I haven't looked at the 1867 article, but I imagine that it sheds light on the question.

One of the consequences of doing historical lexicography with heavy use of searchable online historical text collections is that, far more than in the past, lexicographers have to deal with questionable, cryptic, transitional, or accidental citations, the kind that the OED has traditionally put in square brackets.  Carlyle's usage and some other early ones of "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Semite" or "anti-Semitism" may well fall into this category.

Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 7:53 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: 1867 anti-Semite

On the Great Race-Elements in Christianity<http://www.jstor.org/stable/3025241?&Search=yes&searchText=anti-semite&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D%2528anti-semite%2529%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3D%2528anti-semitic%2529%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26so%3Dold%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=2501&returnArticleService=showFullText> [Free content]  [quick view] <http://www.jstor.org/action/showSearchInfo?doi=10.2307%2F3025241&searchText=anti-semite>
Dunbar I. Heath<http://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Dunbar+I.+Heath%22&wc=on>
Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, Vol. 5, (1867), pp. xix-xxxi, here xxvii:
....Now with the Septuagint went a large body of strongly anti-Semitic literature, such as the books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Daniel, and in this latter Aryan book we have the great source of all the ideas, the imagery, and the phraseology of what in Europe now at the present day is called Christianity.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3025241?seq=9&Search=yes&searchText=anti-semite&list=show&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D%2528anti-semite%2529%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3D%2528anti-semitic%2529%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26so%3Dold%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=2501&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson<http://www.duke.edu/%7Egoranson>

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