SICKENBERGER, JOSEPH. - Catholic exegete, b. at Kempten (Bavaria) on 19 March 1872, d. at Kitzbühel on 27 March 1945.
He pursued theological studies at Munich (1891-96), where he had O. Bardenhewer (v.) as his teacher; ordained a priest in 1896, in Rome in 1896-98 as vicar at the Camposanto Teutonico (v.) in order to devote himself to the study of Christian archaeology, he obtained his doctorate in 1900 at Munich with the thesis Titus von Bostra, Studien zu dessen Lukashamilien, published in the series Texte und Untersuchungen (Leipzig 1901). With another thesis: Die Lukashatene des Niketas von Herakleia, accepted and included in the same series (Leipzig 1902), he qualified as a lecturer in New Testament exegesis at Munich, where in the same year he was already appointed extraordinary professor of patrology and Christian archaeology. In 1903, together with J. Goettberger, professor of the Old Testament at Freising, he founded the journal Bibliche Zeitschrift (v.), in which for 18 years he directed the New Testament section. In 1905 he was transferred to Würzburg as ordinary of pathology; in 1906 he went as ordinary of New Testament exegesis to Breslau, where until 1924 he carried on a most fruitful literary activity. Once again he returned to the study of the "Catena" (v.), with the edition of the Fragmente der Homilien des Cyrill von Alexandrien (in Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig 1909). He contributed several valuable volumes to the Bonner Bibel: Geschichte des N. Test (Bonn 1918-34); Die beiden Briefe des hl. Ap. Paulus an die Korinther und sein Brief an die Römer (ibid. 1919-34). He also wrote the erudite Leben Jesu nach den vier Evangelien in the series Biblische Zeitfragen (Münster 1915-31; in one vol., 1932) and the well-known Kurzgefasste Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Freiburg 1916, 1920, 1925, 1939), translated into Italian (Turin 1942). In 1924 he became the successor of his beloved teacher O. Bardenhewer at Munich and published in his memory the Erinnerungen an O. Bardenhewer (Freiburg 1937); furthermore the Erklärung der Johannesapokalypse (Bonn 1940), written with sound judgment in that difficult field. He directed with competence the New Testament section of the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (1930-1938). A pious and zealous priest, he had an influence on the formation of the clergy, for whom he gave lectures, especially in the Bibelapostolat of the archdiocese of Munich.
Bibliography
Pietro Nober