SMITS, WILLEM. – Flemish exegete, born on 27 January 1704 at Kevelaer (Belgium), died on 1 December 1770 at Antwerp. In 1722 he entered the Franciscan Order and distinguished himself in the study of the Oriental languages and Sacred Scripture. At the request of Cardinal Tommaso Filippo d’Alsazia, Archbishop of Malines, he undertook a new translation of the Bible into Flemish, translating 13 books.
To ensure the continuation of his work, he arranged for the establishment, for his confrères, of a biblical school in the Antwerp convent, called Musaeum philologicum Biblicum; it was placed immediately under the authority of the Commissary General of the German-Belgian Nation, and its direction was entrusted in 1768 to Fr. S. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek were taught there, together with all the disciplines necessary for a critical and literal interpretation of the Bible, especially history, chronology, and geography. His translation of the Bible generally follows the Aramaic paraphrases, but is embellished with very extensive commentaries. S. was unable to complete his work, which was subsequently continued by Fr. Pietro van Hove. The Musaeum also came to an end with the French Revolution.
S. published many learned works (all at Antwerp), of which the principal ones, besides the 18 vols. of translations and commentaries on the books of the Old Testament, are: Isagoge Romano-catholica ad textum Hebraeum (1736-37); Isagoge... ad textum Graecum (1740); Exercitationen criticae in Psalterium (1741); Isagoge... ad Vulgatum Latinam (1742-43); Chronologia Scripturae et literaturae Sacrae historico-critica (1744).