SMITS, WILLEM. - Flemish exegete, b. 27 Jan. 1704 at Kevelaer (Belgium), d. 1 Dec. 1770 at Antwerp. In 1722 he entered the Franciscan Order, and distinguished himself in the study of the Oriental languages and of Sacred Scripture. At the request of Card. Thomas Philip of Alsace, archbishop of Malines, he undertook a new translation of the Bible into Flemish, translating 13 books.
To ensure the continuation of his work, he procured the establishment for his confreres of a biblical school in the convent of Antwerp, called Musaeum philologicum Biblicum; it was immediately subjected to the Commissary General of the German-Belgian Nation, and its direction was entrusted in 1768 to Father S. There were taught Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek and 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 adorned with very extensive commentaries. S. was unable to finish his work, which was then continued by Father Peter van Hove. With the French Revolution the Musaeum also came to an end.
S. published many erudite 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).
Bibliography5 worksS. Dirks, Histoire littéraire et bibliographique des Frères Mineurs... en Belgique, Antwerp 1885, pp. 386-90; St. Schoutens, Martyrologium M
BIBL.: S. Dirks, Histoire littéraire et bibliographique des Frères Mineurs... en Belgique, Antwerp 1885, pp. 386-90; St. Schoutens, Martyrologium Minoritico-Belgicum, Hoogstraten 1902, pp. 204-205; P. Bergmans, s. v. in Biographie nationale de Belgique, Brussels 1914-20, coll. 852-53; J. Goyens, Une école biblique fondée à Anvers en 1768, in Archivum Franc. historicum, 12 (1919), pp. 3-43; C. de Clercq, Catalogue des manuscrits du Grand Séminaire de Malines, Gembloux 1937, p. 176.
Kleinhans, Arduino. “Smits, willem.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, col. 823. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/smits-willem.
MLA
Kleinhans, Arduino. “Smits, willem.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, col. 823. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/smits-willem.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec11_smits_willem,
author = {Kleinhans, Arduino},
title = {Smits, willem},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XI},
pages = {823},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/smits-willem}
}
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