Fulcran Vigouroux

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Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux PSS (born February 13, 1837 in Nant ; † February 21, 1915 in Issy-les-Moulineaux ) was a Roman Catholic priest and professor of philosophy and exegesis . He served as first secretary in the newly formed Pontifical Biblical Commission .

Life

Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux was born on February 13, 1837 into a modest family of Nanter. He did not enter the local college until the age of fifteen, but subsequently entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris via the Grand Séminaire of Rodez .

After his ordination on December 21, 1861, he became a member of the Sulpizians and began work as a professor of philosophy at the Grand Séminaire of Autun , before moving to the seminary of Issy in 1864.

In 1868 Fulcran Vigouroux received a teaching position for the study of the Holy Scriptures in Paris . First he taught at the Saint-Sulpice seminary and from 1890 to 1903 as a professor at the Institut Catholique .

He has been a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission since it was founded in 1902 and was its first secretary from 1903 to 1913. Since then he has spent most of his life in Rome, where he helped formulate the decrees of the commission published from 1905 to 1912.

When he returned to France in 1913, he soon suffered partial paralysis. Fulcran Vigouroux died in Issy on February 21, 1915.

Scientific work

Fulcran Vigouroux's main concern was the scientific justification of the credibility of the Bible, also in historical terms. Reasonable, he sought to refute the arguments against the historical reliability of the Bible put forward by critical contemporary thinkers such as Ernest Renan . Even of a conservative nature, he was open to new trends in biblical studies. He put his great learning into the service of an apologetic goal, convinced that the progress of the historical sciences and archeology would confirm the statements of the biblical books.

Publications such as La Bible et les Découvertes modern en Égypte et en Assyrie (1877, 6th increased edition as La Bible et les découvertes modern 1896) sprang from these efforts to show a mutually confirming relationship between recent scientific findings and the data of the Judeo - Christian Bible ) and Le Nouveau Testament et les Découvertes archéologiques moderne (1890).

The general refutation of the critical way of thinking, which led to the rejection of the Bible as a historical document, served, among others, the works La Bible et la critique, réponse aux "Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse" by M. Renan (1883) and Les livres saints et la critique rationaliste: histoire et réfutation des objections des incrédules contre les saintes écritures (1886–1887).

Vigouroux's manual on the Bible Manuel biblique ou cours d'Écriture Sainte à l'usage des séminaires: Ancien Testament (1878–1880, the New Testament was covered by Vigouroux's colleague Nicolas Bacuez) saw numerous editions and became a classic in French seminars .

In addition to the re-edition of the Bible in the translation by Jean-Baptiste Glaire , the scientific editing work for the Bible dictionary Dictionnaire de la Bible in five volumes (1891-1912) and especially the four-language edition of the Holy Scriptures La Sainte Bible polyglotte in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French in eight volumes (1900–1909) should be mentioned.

Doctrine of the Pontifical Biblical Commission

While Fulcran Vigouroux was secretary in the Papal Biblical Commission, the latter published twelve documents - the last ten of which were drawn by Vigouroux in the first place - which were in question-and-answer form and addressed doubts about the correct interpretation and evaluation of the Bible.

A wide range of topics was covered. For example, the historical-critical admission that Moses used written and oral sources and that there were later inspired additions confirmed Moses' authorship of the Torah ( De mosaica authentia Pentateuchi , 1906). It was also noted that for Hebrew competent is no reason people for the book of Isaiah - whose prophetic future predictions are real and should not be denied - several authors to accept (De libri Isaiae indoles et auctore, 1908). The so-called David psalms should - as the headings already suggest - have the historical figure of David as the author (De auctoribus et de tempore compositionis Psalmorum, 1910).

Decisions were also made for the New Testament: the fourth Gospel comes from the favorite disciple and apostle John (De quarto evangelio, 1907) and there is no reason to doubt the tradition that the Gospel of Matthew was the first to be written and that it was initially written in no longer available in Jewish mother tongue form (Quaestiones de evangelio secundum Matthaeum, 1911). The two-source theory , however, does not correspond to the principles of Catholic exegesis (De quaestione synoptica, 1912, cf. Quaestiones de evangeliis secundum Marcum et secundum Lucam , 1912).

A special document was devoted to the literal historicity of parts of the depictions of the first book of Moses , such as the special creation of the first human couple ( De charactere historico trium priorum capitum Geneseos , 1909).

Aftermath

Pius X confirmed the binding nature of the documents on which Vigouroux had worked ( Motu Proprio Praestantia Scripturae , 1907). Most of the current Catholic exegetes, however, consider the opinions of Fulcran Vigouroux as a member of the Papal Biblical Commission to be outdated in some cases.

According to Albert Strobel , it is Fulcran Vigouroux's "main merit that he studied scripture in the Catholic Church like no other. Room renewed & gave him a wider space in the student program of the seminars. "

Fonts

Monographs

  • La Bible et les Découvertes modern en Égypte et en Assyrie , two volumes, Paris 1877, 6th, increased edition as La Bible et les découvertes modern , four volumes, Paris 1896.
  • Manuel biblique ou cours d'Écriture Sainte à l'usage des séminaires: Ancien Testament , Paris 1878–1880.
  • La Bible et la critique, response to "Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse" by M. Renan , Paris 1883.
  • Les livres saints et la critique rationaliste: histoire et réfutation des objections des incrédules contre les saintes écritures , Paris 1886–1887.
  • Le Nouveau Testament et les Découvertes archéologiques moderne , Paris 1890.

Published writings

  • La Sainte Bible selon la Vulgate , trad. En français, avec des notes, par l'abbé J.-B. Glaire, avec introductions, notes complémentaires et appendices par F. Vigouroux, 3rd edition, Paris 1889–1890.
  • Dictionnaire de la Bible , five volumes, Paris 1891–1912.
  • La sainte Bible polyglotte , contenant le texte hébreu original, le texte grec des Septante, le texte latin de la Vulgate et la traduction française: avec les différences de l'hébreu, des septante et de la vulgate; des introductions, des notes, des cartes et des illustrations, eight volumes, Paris 1900–1909.

Texts of the Pontifical Biblical Commission with the collaboration of Fulcran Vigouroux '

  • Circa citationes implicitas in S. Scriptura contentas , On the implicit quotations in Holy Scripture (February 13, 1905), ASS 37 (1904–05) 666.
  • De narrationibus specietenus tantum historicis , Only apparently historical stories (June 23, 1905), ASS 38 (1905-06) 124.
  • De mosaica authentia Pentateuchi , On the Mosaic Authenticity of the Pentateuch (June 27, 1906), ASS 39 (1906) 377.
  • De quarto evangelio , author and historical truth of the 4th Gospel (May 29, 1907), ASS 40 (1907) 383.
  • De libri Isaiae indole et auctore , essence and author of the book Isaiah (June 28, 1908), ASS 41 (1908) 613.
  • De organo officiali Pontificiae Commissionis de re biblica , The official organ of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (February 15, 1909), AAS 1 (1909) 241.
  • De charactere historico trium priorum capitum Geneseos , On the historical character of the first three chapters of Genesis (June 30, 1909), AAS 1 (1909) 567-569.
  • De auctoribus et de tempore compositionis Psalmorum , Authors and when the Psalms were written (May 1, 1910), AAS 2 (1910) 354.
  • De examinibus coram Pontificia Commissione Biblica subeundis , Academic Examinations before the Pontifical Biblical Commission (May 24, 1911), AAS 3 (1911) 47–50.
  • Quaestiones de evangelio secundum Matthaeum , On the Gospel according to Matthew (June 19, 1911), AAS 3 (1911) 294-296.
  • Quaestiones de evangeliis secundum Marcum et secundum Lucam , On the Gospels according to Mark and Luke (June 26, 1912), AAS 4 (1912) 463-465.
  • De quaestione synoptica , On the Synoptic Question (June 26, 1912), AAS 4 (1912) 465.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ See PF Chirico: Vigouroux, Fulcran Grégoire. In: New Catholic Encyclopedia , second edition, ed. by Berard L. Marthaler, Washington, DC, 2002, vol. 14, p. 512; there: "Conservative in temperament, he was yet open to the new currents in Biblical studies."
  2. ^ See I. Noye: Vigouroux (Fulcran). In: Catholicisme. Here - Aujourd'hui - Demain , ed. by G. Mathon and G.-H. Baudry, Paris 2000, Volume 15, p. 1129, there: "Il avait mis sa grande érudition au service d'une visée apologétique, persuadé que les progrès de l'histoire et de l'archéologie confirment les données des livres bibliques."
  3. ^ Albert Strobel: Vigouroux, Fulcran Grégoire. In: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche , 3rd edition, Freiburg et al. 1993-2001, Volume 10, p. 789 f.
personal data
SURNAME Vigouroux, Fulcran
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vigouroux, Fulcran Grégoire (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Roman Catholic priest and secretary of the Papal Biblical Commission
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Nant
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1915
Place of death Issy-les-Moulineaux