VETTER, PAUL ALEXANDER

VETTER, PAUL ALEXANDER. - Armenian scholar and Catholic exegete, born 14 July 1850 in Oberdettingen (near Biberach, Württemberg), died in Tübingen 21 Sept. 1906.

From 1868 he studied philosophy and theology at the Wilhelmsstift in Tübingen, and simultaneously philology, graduating in the latter there in 1872. Ordained a priest in 1873, he was a repetitor at the same institute in 1881; then parish priest in Weiler near Rottenburg; but he did not interrupt his studies, copying and collating Armenian manuscripts in Paris. The Kirchenväterkommission of Berlin entrusted him with the treatment of ancient Armenian Christian writers, and in the Lehrbuch der Patrologie und Patristik (III, Mainz 1881, pp. 206-62) by J. Nirschl he treated masterfully of Syriac and Armenian writers. In 1891 he was given the chair of Old Testament introduction and exegesis at Tübingen. Appointed professor, he did not cease studying Armenian manuscripts, making further trips to Paris and to San Lazzaro in Venice (v. MECHTARISTI), and on them he published Theologische Quartalschrift (v.) of Oriens christianus (v.), in the early years in Rome. He had already published in a Latin version Chosroae Magni episcopi monophysitae explicatio precum Missae (Freiburg 1880). In the field of exegesis he published only one book: Metrik des Buches Job (Freiburg 1897), important at the time, today of historical value only because of the overly complicated theory of "caesuras". On other biblical questions he pronounced himself in articles and extensive reviews in the Theol. Quartalschrift and the Biblische Zeitschrift; of value is his study on the "romance" AHIKAR (v.) in relation to the Book of Tobit. He had courageous words on the occasion of the Babel-Bibel controversy, a violent and exaggerated outbreak of new research on cuneiform texts, which had for too long not been used to clarify the historical and religious environment of Israel, with the claim that mythicism and faith in Revelation are mutually exclusive. Less fortunate, although moved by the best of intentions, was his position Pentateuch (v.). Emphasizing the thesis of F. V. Hummelauer's famous book, Exegetisches zur Inspirationsfrage (Freiburg 1903), he argued that "inerrancy conditioned by the inspired character of the Bible" does not exclude its imperfection ("Unvollkommenheit") in the field of secular sciences, a thesis that Spiritus Paraclitus (v.). Associating himself with the "broad and progressive" school, as regards the Pentateuch he did not admit the argument drawn from the divine names; moreover, for him P is prior to the prophet Amos and D prior to the prophet Hosea. But he admitted as necessary for the salvation of the Church a "Catholic criticism of the Pentateuch", which would substantially accept the documents maintained by the critics, but reject the foundation of Israel's religious evolution, advocated by Wellhausen according to rationalistic principles. The decree of the Biblical Commission on the Pentateuch (cf. Denz-U, nn. 1997-2000) arrived (27 June 1906) when V. was already on his deathbed.