SMITS, Willem. - Flemish exegete, b. 27 Jan. 1704 at Kevelaer (Belgium), d. 19 Dec. 1770 at Antwerp. In 1722 he entered the Franciscan Order and distinguished himself in the study of Oriental languages and Holy Scripture. At the request of Cardinal Tommaso Filippo d'Alsazia, Archbishop of Mechelen, 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 Antwerp convent, called the Musaeum philologicum Biblicum; it was immediately placed under the authority of the Commissary General of the German-Belgian Nation, and its direction was entrusted in 1768 to Fr. 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 extensive commentary. S. was unable to complete his work, which was later continued by Fr. Pietro van Hove. The Musaeum came to an end with the French Revolution.
S. published many scholarly works (all at Antwerp), the principal of which, besides the 18 volumes 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); Exercitationes criticae in Psalterium (1741); Isagoge... ad Vulgatam Latinam (1742-43); Chronologia Scripturae et literatae Sacrae historico-criticae (1744).