 Bernays left no literary works.A small anonymous essay, "Der Bibelsche Orient"—of great linguistic learning and original and wide historical views on Judaism—was supposed to have been written by him in early years; but he denied the authorship, and never in later life showed any conformity with the views of the little book.Of his sons, the philologist Jacob Bernays, professor and chief librarian at the University of Bonn, kept faithful to the religious views of his father, while the literary historian Michael Bernays, who was only fourteen-years-old on his father's death, was converted to Christianity.