SCHEGG, PETER JOHANN. - Catholic exegete, b. 16 June 1815 at Kaufbeuren in the Algäu (Bavaria), d. at Munich on 9 July 1885. Ordained priest in 1838.
At Augsburg, owing to frail health, he became chaplain to the English Ladies at Berg am Laim near Munich. He devoted his spare time to the study of the Hebrew Bible.
The substantial volume Ausgewählte Psalmen won him the friendship of D. B. Haneberg (v.), who, it seems, directed him toward an academic career. In 1843 S. became a “repetitor” (lecturer) in exegesis at the Lyceum of Freising. In the years that followed he published numerous exegetical works, first on the Old Testament and then on the New. In 1847 he became a professor, and in 1868 he was transferred to Würzburg; after Reithmayr’s death, from 1872 he held the chair of hermeneutics, introduction, and New Testament exegesis in Munich. He also served for ten years as a senator of the university and was rector in 1881–82. In 1883–84 at the University of Munich he was a student of Möhler (v.), Döllinger (v.), Allioli (v.), and Stadler, during a glorious period for that theological faculty. He had a solid grounding in positive theology but less so in dogmatics. His commentaries are based on thorough philological work, though they do not lack personal opinions and a certain prolixity, especially in the ascetical meditations inserted into the commentaries. All of it, however, is permeated by a more effective piety. S. truly penetrated the soul of the sacred writers. He was a pious priest of great simplicity, very kind, and generous to the poor. At his death he bequeathed his estate to the foundation of an orphanage in his native town.
Works: Ausgewählte Psalmen (Regensburg 1843); Die Psalmen (2 vols., Munich 1845–47; 2nd ed. in 3 vols., 1887); Isaia (2 vols., 1887); Die Geschichte der letzten Propheten (2 vols., Regensburg 1853–54); Kleine Propheten (1 vol., 1887); Matthäus (3 vols., Munich 1856–58); Lukas (3 vols., 1887–88); Gedenkbuch einer Pilgerreise (in Palestina; 2 vols., 1887); Markus (2 vols., 1887–88); Leben Jesu (2 vols., Freiburg im Br. 1874–75); Johannes (according to the correspondence of Haneberg, 2 vols., Munich 1878–1880); Todesjahr des Herodes und Jesu (against Fl. Rives, 1882); Jakobus, der Bruder des Herrn, und sein Brief (1 vol., 1887); Das Hohelied (1 vol., 1885); Biblische Archäologie (published posthumously by J. B. Wirthmüller, 2 vols., 1887–1887); see pp. v–xviii for the “life” of S.