Joseph Fitzmyer

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Reverend Doctor

Joseph Fitzmyer

Alma mater

Joseph Augustine Fitzmyer

Society of Jesus
(Jesuits).

Fitzmyer was considered an important scholar of biblical studies, particularly the New Testament. He also contributed to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Jewish literature.

Biography

Early life

Joseph Fitzmyer was born on November 4, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was admitted on July 30, 1938 to the novitiate of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. In 1940, he entered Loyola University Chicago, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1945 a Master of Arts degree in Greek language. Fitzmyer then studied theology in the Facultés Saint-Albert in Belgium.[1]

Priesthood

Fitzmyer was ordained into the

American School of Oriental Research (ASOR) in Jerusalem. He worked on preparing a concordance to the Dead Sea Scrolls.[1][2]

Career

From 1958 to 1969, Fitzmyer taught New Testament and biblical languages at Woodstock College in Woodstock, Maryland. He moved to Chicago in 1969 to teach Aramaic and Hebrew at the University of Chicago. In 1971, Fitzmyer joined the faculty of Fordham University to teach New Testament and biblical languages. He then went to the Weston School of Theology at Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts.

Fitzmyer served as the speaker's lecturer at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom from 1974 to 1975. In 1976, Fitzmyer was appointed as a professor of New Testament in the Department of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Fitzmyer joined the Jesuit community at Georgetown University in Washington.

Fitzmyer served as editor of

Catholic Biblical Association of America (1969–1970), of the Society of Biblical Literature (1979), and of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (1992–1993). He was the 1984 recipient of the Burkitt Medal of the British Academy and was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1984 to 1995.[3][4]

Retirement, death and legacy

In 1986, Fitzmyer retired from Catholic University, but did not go into full retirement until 2011.

Merion, Pennsylvania, on December 24, 2016.[5]

John Martens told the magazine America that Fitzmyer was:

a giant of biblical scholarship. No qualifiers need apply. He was not a giant of Catholic biblical scholarship, not a giant of 20th-century biblical scholarship, just a giant of biblical scholarship.[6]

Fitzmyer's funeral was held on 5 January 2017 at St. Matthias Church in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and he was buried in the cemetery of the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, Pennsylvania.[7]

Biblical commentaries

Fitzmyer's publications covered Scripture, theology, Christology, catechesis, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was a co-editor of the Jerome Biblical Commentary (1968) and the New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1991)

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1989)

1 Corinthians, Romans
, and Philemon.

The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fitzmyer summarizes his 50 years of research in the field.[12]

Selected works

Books

Articles and chapters

Festschrift

  • M. P. Horgan and P. J. Kobelski, To Touch the Text: Biblical and Related Studies in Honor of Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. New York: Crossroad, 1989.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Staff, Biblical Archaeology Society (April 12, 2017). "Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (1920–2016)". Biblical Archaeology Society. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  2. ^ University, Catholic. "Professor Emeritus Fr. Joseph Fitzmeyer, SJ Enters Eternal Life". The Catholic University of America. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  3. ^ Schiffman, Lawrence. "Joseph Fitzmyer: An Appreciation".
  4. S2CID 143540551
    .
  5. ^ "Remembering Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J." America Magazine. December 24, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  6. ^ "Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (Father)". Midwest Province. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  7. ^ "Noted biblical scholar Jesuit Father Fitzmyer dies at age 96". National Catholic Reporter. December 30, 2016.
  8. ^ Brown, Raymond, S.S.; Fitzmyer, Joseph, S.J.; Murphy, Roland, O.Carm (1989). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Pearson.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. .
  10. ^ Fitzmyer, Joseph (1993). Romans. The Anchor Bible Commentary. Connecticut: Yale University Press.
  11. ^ Fitzmyer, Joseph (1995). Spiritual Exercises Based on Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Maryland: Paulist Press.
  12. . Retrieved December 15, 2015.