Frank-Kamenetsky Israel

Frank-Kamenetsky Israel (1880–1937) – Egyptologist, Biblical scholar, historian of religion.

He learnt at a real school in Vilno and than at the Kievan St Vladimir University. He was excluded for his participation in students protests in 1902. In 1902-1911, he studied in Germany (Universities of Leipzig, Berlin, Gottingen, Konigsberg). In 1911, he defended his Doctor thesis ‘Research on relation of poems, ascribed to Umayah ibn abi as-Saltu, to Quran’ in Konigsberg’. He was interested in Egyptology and studied it in Germany till 1914. During the WWI he served in army.

From 1918 till 1921, he made lectures in the history of Ancient East at the Irkutsk University (Prof. since 1919). In 1921-1923, he headed the Chair of Ancient East at the Moscow University. In 1922-1923, he made lectures in the history of Jews of the Biblical period at the Institute of High Hebrew Knowledge. Since 1923, he was Researcher of the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture and at the Japhetic Institute of the Ac. of Sc. (since 1931 — Institute of language and Thought), in the mid-1930-s – Head of the Cabinet of Semitic and Hamitic Languages and the Cabinet of Oral Literature of the Primordial Society at that institute. Since 1930, he headed the Chair of the History of Oriental Religions at the Leningrad Historical and Linguistic Institute (since 1932 – Leningrad Institute of History, Philosophy, Literature and Linguistic). Since 1933, he made the initial courses of Old Hebrew and the course of Biblical Studies, History of Old Hebrew Literature, and History of Religion at the Chair of Semitic and Hamitic Philology of the Leningrad State University. Doctor in Philology (1934) without a defense.

In 1920-s 0 1930-s, he worked in collaboration with N. Ya. Marr and О. М. Freidenberg, published articles in ‘Japhetic Collections of Articles’ (Yafeticheskyi sbornik), took part in the collective work ‘Tristan and Isolde’ (1932). He was elected as Chairman of the Moscow Branch of the Bureau of the Union of Egyptologists at the All-Russian Research Association of Oriental Studies.

He died in an accident.

By the mid-1920-s, F. was under the influence of the Japhetic theory of N. Ya. Marr. He worked out research approaches to the system of archaic philology in the sense of E. Cassirer and L. Levy-Bruhl, and supposed that pre-logical thinking was the basement of mythological conceptions.

Compositions

Der Papyrus Nr. 3162 des Berliner Museums // Orientalistische Literatur Zeitung, 1914, März–April.
Beiträge zur Geschichte des Amonkultes und seiner Preisterschaft // Orientalistische Literatur Zeitung, 1914, Juli.
Eine altarabisch-hebräisch-ägyptische Metapher // Orientalistische Literatur Zeitung, 1914, August–September.
Monuments of Egyptian Religion of the Theban Period. Vol. I, Printing Communion А. А. Levenson, 1917. (Cultural and Historical Monuments of Ancient East / Edit. Prof. V. А. Turaev. Iss. 5). (in Rus.)
Monuments of Egyptian Religion of the Theban Period. Vol. II. Ibid, 1918. (in Rus.)
Religion of Amon and the Old Testament // Collection of Works by Professors and Teachers of the Irkutsk State University. Part I, iss. I, 1921. (in Rus.)
How Did They Learn to Read Egyptian Inscriptions. Moscow All-Russian Research Association of Orientalists, 1922. (in Rus.)
Prophets and Wonder-Makers: On the Local Origin of the Myth about Christ. Leningrad, Seyatel’ Publishing House, 1925. (Ch. I and II republ. in: Origin of the Bible. / Comp. I. А. Kryvelev. Moscow, Nauka Publishing House, 1964. (in Rus.)
Water and Fire in the Biblical Poetry // Yafeticheskyi sbornik. Iss. 3, 1925, pp. 127–164. (in Rus.)
Prophet Jeremiah and Party Struggle in Judea // Religion and Society. Leningrad, Seyatel’ Publishing House, 1926, pp. 60–82. (in Rus.)
Survivals of Animusm in the Biblical Poetry // Hebrew Thought. Leningrad, Seyatel’ Publishing House, 1926, pp. 42–80. (in Rus.)
One Georgian Parallel to the Ancient Egyptian Tale ‘on Two Brothers’ // Yafeticheskyi sbornik. Iss. 4, 1926, pp. 39–71. (in Rus.)
The Bible // Big Soviet Encyclopedia. Vol. 6, Moscow, 1927, pp. 200 – 208. (in Rus.)
Über die Wasser- und Baumnatur des Osiris (mit Heranziehung folkloristischer Parallelen) //Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, 1928, 24. — Review: Ancient Egypt, 1928, march. Part I. Р. 20 ff.
Religious Sincretism in Egypt of the Theban Period // Zapiski of the Collegium of Orientalists at the Asian Museum of the Ac. of Sc. Vol. III, iss. I, 1928, pp. 1–62. (in Rus.)
Primordial Thinking in the Light of the Japhetic Theory and Philosophy // Language and Literature. Vol. 3, Leningrad, 1929, pp. 70–188. (in Rus.)
Vegetation and Agriculture in Poetic Images of the Bible and in Comparisons of Homer // Language and Literature. Vol. 4, Leningrad, 1929, pp. 123–170. (in Rus.)
Jehova’s Chariot: On the Issue of Stadial Character of the Japhetic Theory // Yafeticheskyi sbornik. Iss. 6, 1930, pp. 63–80. (in Rus.)
The Echo of Ideas on ‘Mother-Earth’ in the Old Testament // Language and Literature. Vol. 8, Leningrad, 1932, pp. 121–136. (in Rus.)
Ishtar–Isolde in the Biblical Poetry // Tristan and Isolde: From Love Heroine of Feudal Europe to Matriarchal Goddess of Afro-Eurasia. Collective Work of the Sector of Semantic of Myth and Folklore, edit. by Acad. N. Ya. Marr. Trudy of the Institute of Language and Thinking of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. Iss. 2. Leningrad, 1932, pp. 71–89. (in Rus.)
Results of the Collective Work on the Narration ‘Tristan and Isolde’ // Tristan and Isolde, pp. 261–276. (republ. in: The Dusk of Linguistics: From the History of National Linguistic. Anthology / Comp. V. N. Bazylev and V. P. Neroznak. Moscow, 2001, pp. 340–353). (in Rus.)
Index of Patterns for ‘Tristan and Isolde’ // Tristan and Isolde, pp. 277 and so on. (in Rus.)
On Some Remnants of Do-Flective Structure in Ancient Egyptian Language // Language and Thinking. Vol. I, Leningrad, 1933, pp. 149–162. (in Rus.)
Woman-City in the Biblical Eschatology // For Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg by the 50th Anniversary of His Scholarly and Social Activity. 1882–1932. Collection of articles. Leningrad, 1934, pp. 535–548. (in Rus.)
Academician N. Ya. Marr. 1864–1934. (Orbituary, comp. I. G. Frank-Kamenetsky and V. I. Abaev) // Izvestiya of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R., Department of Social Studies, 1934, pp. 653–660. (in Rus.)
Madlieri mkvdari (Grateful Dead) // For Marrist Linguistic. Tiflis, 1934, pp. 193–200. (in Georgian)
On Cosmic Semantics of Stone and Metal // Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. for Acad. N. Ya. Marr. XLV. Moscow –Leningrad, 1935, pp. 573–582. (in Rus.)
On the Issue of Development of Ancient Hebrew Verb // Language and Thinking. Vol. III–IV. Leningrad, 1935, pp. 13–46. (in Rus.)
On the Issue of Development of Poetic Metaphor // Sovetskoe yazykoznanie. Vol. 1, Leningrad, 1935, pp. 93–145 (republ. in: From Word to Sense: Problems of Tropogenesis. Moscow, 2001). (in Rus.)
Parting as a Metaphor of Death in Myth and Poesy // Izvestiya of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R., Department of Social Studies. Iss. 7, 1935, pp. 153–176. (in Rus.)
N. Ya. Marr and Studying Semitic Languages // Language and Thinking. Vol. V. Leningrad, 1937, pp. 171–182. (in Rus.)
Adam and Purusha: Macrocosm and Microcosm in Judaic and Indian Cosmology // In the Memory of Acad. N. Ya. Marr. 1864–1934. Moscow –Leningrad, 1938, pp. 458–476. (in Rus.)
Jehova’s Chariot: Works on the Biblical Mythology. Moscow, Labirint Publishing House, 2004. (in Rus.)

Bibliography

Shakhnovich М. М. Essays on the History of Religious Studies. St. Petersburg University, 2006, pp. 212– 225. (in Rus.)

About him

Diyakonov I. M. Book of Memories. St. Petersburg, 1995. (in Rus.)
Debacker L., Shilkov Yu. М. Language, Myth and Metaphor: On Paleosemantic Conception of I. G. Frank-Kamenetsky // Veche: Almanac of Russian Philology and Culture. Iss. 13, St. Petersburg, 2002, pp.164– 176. (in Rus.)
Shakhnovich М. М. Essays on the History of Religious Studies. St. Petersburg University, 2006. (in Rus.)
Frank-Kamenetsky Israel // Hebrew on-line encyclopedia: http://eleven.co.il/jewish-languages/semitic-languages/14335/

M. Sh.