Samuel Bochart (30 May 1599 – 16 May 1667) was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of

Pierre Daniel Huet P. D. Huetius Pierre Daniel Huet (; la, Huetius; 8 February 1630 – 26 January 1721) was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics, founder of the Académie de Physique in Caen (1662-1672) and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 t ...

. His two-volume '' Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan'' ( Caen 1646) exerted a profound influence on seventeenth-century Biblical

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

. Bochart was one of the several generations of

antiquaries An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic sit ...

who expanded upon the basis

Renaissance humanists Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...

had laid down, complementing their revolutionary

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate ...

by setting classical texts more firmly within the cultural contexts of Greek and Roman societies, without understanding of which they could never be fully understood. Thus Bochart stands at the beginning of a discipline of the

history of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual his ...

that provides the modern context for all textual studies.

Life

Bochart was born in Rouen. He was for many years a pastor of a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

church at Caen, and also studied in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he was tutor to Wentworth Dillon, later Earl of Roscommon. Bochart's ''Hierozoicon sive bipartitum opus de animalibus sacrae scripturae'' (2 vols., London 1663), a

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

treatise on the animals of the Bible was more than a Christianized Pliny's Natural History nor just an expansion of Conrad Gesner's '' Historiae animalium''. Bochart instanced the Arabic naturalists, like al-Damîrî and al-Qazwini, none of whose work had appeared in European print before. His etymologies follow the fanciful tradition inherited from

Classical Antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

and passed to medieval culture through Isidore of Seville. In 1652

Christina of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December ( New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

invited him to Stockholm, where he studied the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

manuscripts in the queen's possession. He was accompanied by

, afterwards

Bishop of Avranches The Roman Catholic Diocese of Coutances (–Avranches) ( Latin: ''Dioecesis Constantiensis (–Abrincensis)''; French: ''Diocèse de Coutances (–Avranches)'') is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Its mother church is the Ca ...

. On his return to Caen he was received into the academy of that city. Bochart was a man of profound erudition; he possessed a thorough knowledge of the principal

Oriental language A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tu ...

s, including

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

, and

; and at an advanced age he wished to learn Ethiopic. Bochart's examples and quotations provided challenges to London

typographers Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and ...

, who created typefaces to reproduce them. He was so absorbed in his favorite study, that he saw Phoenician origins even in Celtic words,"Absurd curiosity (for we must call things by their right names) has been carried so far as to seek Hebrew and Chaldee derivations from certain Teutonic and Celtic words. This, Bochart never fails to do. It is astonishing with what confidence these men of genius have proved that expressions used on the banks of the Tiber were borrowed from the patois of the savages of Biscay."

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

, ''Philosophical Dictionary'', 1764: "Augury"
on-line
) and hence the number of chimerical etymologies which swarm in his works. His correspondence on theological subjects, carried on with

Cappellus Louis Cappel (15 October 1585 – 18 June 1658) was a French Protestant churchman and scholar. A Huguenot, he was born at St Elier, near Sedan. He studied theology at the Academy of Sedan and the Academy of Saumur, and Arabic at the University ...

Salmasius Claude Saumaise (15 April 1588 – 3 September 1653), also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar. Life Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy. His father, a counsellor of the parlement of Dijon, se ...

and

Vossius Vossius may refer to: * Gerardus Vossius (1577–1649), a Dutch humanist * Dionysius Vossius (1612–1633), a Dutch translator, son of Gerardus Vossius * Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), a Dutch scholar, son of Gerardus Vossius * Vossius Gymnasium ...

was included in his posthumous collected works, and so achieved a wide distribution. He died of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

, aged 67, in the academy of Caen during an impassioned debate with Huet on the translation of a passage of

Origen Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theo ...

related to

transubstantiation Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις '' metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of ...

His major works

*a dictionary of Arabic *'' Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan'' ( Caen 1646) *''De consiliandis in religionis negotio protestantibus'', 1662 *''Hierozoïcon'', (London 1663)

Notes

References

*Miller, Peter N. "The "Antiquarianization" of Biblical Scholarship and the London Polyglot Bible (1653–57)" ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 62.3(July 2001), pp. 463–482. * Shalev, Zur. ''Sacred Words and Worlds: Geography, Religion, and Scholarship, 1550–1700'', Leiden
Brill
2012. * Thiollet, Jean-Pierre, ''Je m'appelle Byblos'' (pp. 234–243), H & D, Paris, 2005.
(Smitskamp, 2003) Samuel Bochart, ''Opera omnia''
Bibliographic description. *

External links

* * *
Samuelis Bocharti Hierozoicon: sive De animalibus S. Scripturae, Volume 2
1794 Latin, at Google books {{DEFAULTSORT:Bochart, Samuel 1599 births 1667 deaths Linguists from France Writers from Rouen French Calvinist and Reformed theologians Calvinist pacifists 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 17th-century French theologians 17th-century biblical scholars 17th-century Christian biblical scholars Phoenician-Punic studies Clergy from Caen