Auguste-François Maunoury (b. at

Champsecret Champsecret () is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France. Points of interest * Arboretum de l'Étoile des Andaines See also *Communes of the Orne department *Parc naturel régional Normandie-Maine Normandie-Maine Regional ...

, Orne, France, 30 October 1811; d. Séez, Orne, 17 November 1898) was a Catholic

Hellenist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient ...

and exegete.

Biography

Maunoury studied classics at the preparatory

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

in Séez, to which institution he returned after his theological course, and where he spent the whole of his long priestly career. Until 1852, he taught the classics, and then became professor of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

, a position which he occupied for twenty-two years. During this period, keeping abreast of the progress of Hellenistic studies in France and Germany, he composed, published and revised those of his works (, etc.) which gained him a reputation as a Greek scholar. Towards 1866, Maunoury began his work as a biblical commentator, by treating some sections of the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

in the of his native diocese; but it was only after 1875, that he gave himself fully to the pursuit of biblical studies. In 1877, he became canon of the cathedral of Séez and, the following year, he began to publish his commentaries on all the

Epistle An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as par ...

s of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. These commentaries appeared in five volumes, as follows: # (Paris, 1878) # (Paris, 1879) # (Paris, 1880) # (Paris, 1882) # (Paris, 1888) In explaining the biblical texts, Maunoury made use of his familiarity with Greek grammar and authors, availing himself chiefly of the commentaries of

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his homilies, preaching and public speaking, his denunciat ...

and

Theodoret Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus ( grc-gre, Θεοδώρητος Κύρρου; AD 393 – 458/466) was an influential theologian of the School of Antioch, biblical commentator, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus (423–457). He played a pivo ...

. In 1894, he published his (''Commentary on the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

;'' 2 vols., Paris), a Latin work, written almost exclusively on the basis of the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

and the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

. His only contribution to apologetics is a volume entitled (Paris, 1887).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maunoury, A 1811 births 1898 deaths People from Champsecret 19th-century French Catholic theologians