WUTZ, FRANZ XAVER. - Philologist and scholar of biblical textual criticism, b. in Eichstätt on 21 Oct. 1882, d. there on 19 March 1938. Ordained priest in 1911, W. spent almost his entire life at the seminary in Eichstätt as a professor of exegesis.
The dissertation, which he presented to the theological faculty of Munich in 1910, on the *Liber interpretationis nominum Hebraicorum* of St. Jerome, became the basis for an imposing work on the *Onomastica sacra*, which he published in two substantial volumes: I: *Quellen und System der Onomastika*; II: *Texte der Onomastika und Register*, in *Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur*, 3rd series, XI, 1 and 2 (Leipzig 1914-15). In other works, among which should be particularly noted *Die Psalmen textkritisch untersucht* (Munich 1925); *Die Transkriptionen von der Septuaginta bis zu Hieronymus* (2 vols., Stuttgart 1925-33); *Systematische Wege von der Septuaginta zum hebräischen Urtext* (ibid. 1937), W. concerned himself especially with a hypothetical restoration of an earlier Hebrew text than the Masoretic one through comparison with ancient versions. He maintained that the Greek translators used a Hebrew text already transcribed into Greek. The complexity of the system constructed, together with the silence of ancient writers on the matter, greatly dampened the enthusiasm that had greeted W.’s theory in some quarters; the theory was, however, accepted by distinguished scholars (R. Kittel, M. Ginsburger, J. Göttsberger). There were no lack of rather severe criticisms of this bold attempt to revive an old hypothesis of O. G. Tychsen, which was scarcely probable. Posthumous works include brief commentaries on Job (Stuttgart 1939) and on the *Song of Songs* (ibid. 1940).