Prat, Ferdinand

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PRAT, FERDINAND

Jesuit exegete; b. La Frétarie (Aveyron), France, Feb. 10, 1857; d. Toulouse, Aug. 4, 1938. After his ordination in 1886 and his studies in Oriental languages at Beirut and Paris and in exegesis under R. Cornely in Rome and J. Knabenbauer in England, he taught Scripture at various times in France, Belgium, and Lebanon. In Rome from 1902 to 1907 as one of the first consultors to the pontifical biblical commission, he influenced the earliest decisions on "implicit citations" and the historicity of the Bible and helped in the planning of the proposed Pontifical Biblical Institute. For his service as chaplain during World War I, he was awarded the Croix de la Légion d'honneur. Attached intermittently to the editorial staff of Études, he published many more than 100 articles in that and other journals. His books include Origène: le théologien et l'exégète (1907), Saint Paul (1922), Jésus-Christ, sa Vie, sa Doctrine, son Oeuvre (1933), and his most lasting work, La Théologie de saint Paul (2 v., 1908, 1912).

Bibliography: j. calÈs, Un Maître de l'exégèse contemporaine (Paris 1942).

[j. r. keating]