HUMMELAUER, FRANZ. — Jesuit exegete, b. in Vienna (Austria) on 14 Aug. 1842, d. at 's-Heerenberg (Holland) on 12 Apr. 1914. On 2 Aug. 1860 he entered the Society of Jesus; he resided for a long time (1895-1908) at Valkenburg; in 1903 he was appointed among the first consultors of the Biblical Commission; from 1908 to 1911 he devoted himself to apostolic ministries in Berlin; he spent his last years, ill, in the novitiate house of 's-Heerenberg.
He began his exegetical work with 18 articles on the beginnings of the human race, which he published in the periodical Stimmen aus Maria Laach (1873-82). Then he commented, in volumes published in the collection Cursus Scripturae Sacrae (Paris), the Pentateuch and the following historical books: Libri Samuels seu I-II Regum (1883), Indices et Ruth (1888), Genesis (1895), Exodus et Leviticus (1897), Numeri (1899), Deuteronomium (1901), Josue (1903), Liber I Paralipomenon (1905); but he did not complete II Paralipomenon or III and IV (I-II) Kings. He also wrote four monographs, twice treating Der Biblische Schöpfungsbericht (Freiburg 1877-98), then Exegetisches zur Inspirationsfrage ([*Bibl. Studien, 9, iv], Freiburg im Breisgau 1904). This work above all aroused contradictions, and it cannot be denied that some conclusions are less solid and some statements hasty; everything, however, was said with profound learning, with the pure intention of opening a way to the solution of present-day difficulties. He left an excellent book of meditations: S. Ignatii de libro Exercitiorum meditationum et contemplationum puncta* (Freiburg im Breisgau 1896; 3rd ed. ibid. 1925).
Bibliography2 works
Urbano Holzmeister