ABRAM, NICOLAS. - Humanist and Jesuit exegete from Lorraine, b. at Xaronval in 1589, d. at Pont-à-Mousson on 7 Dec. 1655. Having entered the Society (1606), he studied at the faculties of Letters and Theology of Pont-à-Mousson, then taught humanities there: his Epitome praeceptorum graecorum versibus latinis comprehensorum (Pont-à-Mousson 1612) went through about 50 editions up to 1645. After 8 years of active preaching (1623-30; in 1625 he collaborated with St. Peter Fourier), he taught Sacred Scripture for 9 years at Pont-à-Mousson (after the French invasion of May 1635, expelled from Lorraine by Richelieu, he returned there only in 1643) and for 2 years at Dijon (1651-53). He left unfinished the history of the University of Pont-à-Mousson (published by Fr. Auguste Carayon, 1870).
Most erudite, he used profane letters and sciences to interpret the Old Testament. Besides commentaries on the orations of Cicero (2 vols. in fol., Paris 1631) and on Virgil (3 vols. in 8°, Pont-à-Mousson 1632-36 and many reprints), still useful today, he published: Nonni Panopolitani paraphrasis sancti sec. Johannem Evangelii (Paris 1623) with the translation into Latin verse (he supplied the episode of the adulteress with his own 73 Greek hexameters); in the commentary on Virgil he inserted (1636) the Diatriba de quattuor fluviis et loco paradisi (which places it in Palestine) ad explicationem v. 290 l. IV Georgicon. Ingenious is the Epitome rudimentorum linguae hebraicae (Paris 1645) in Latin verse. His principal exegetical work is the Pharus Veteris Testamenti sive sacrarum quaestionum II. XV (in fol., Paris 1648), in which he resolves in elegant dialogic form, from the Hexaemeron to the 70 weeks of Daniel, the objections raised by the natural and historical-chronological sciences. The Pharus is followed by De veritate et mendacio II. IV, also in dialogic form, concerning the real or apparent lies reported by the Bible. A.'s ascetical work, Axiomata vitae christianae (Pont-à-Mousson 1654), had a rapid diffusion.
Bibliography5 works
Antonino Romeo