Sacred texts must be studied by stripping away later interpretive layers

Evidence

Goldziher regarded it as the historian’s task continually to strip away the layers of additions, amendations, and interpretations, eventually to uncover core and pristine religious ideas and ideals. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 396

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the German Jewish ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’ method of peeling back accumulated interpretation to find pristine origins — a distinctive scholarly approach.
• XREF: connects to: Canonical sacred texts betray their own youthful radical origins; Reading scripture openly requires suppressing traditional presuppositions. — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory: The…, 85