Name

Richard Simon

Original name

Main activity

Exegete

Secondary activity

Theologian

Title

Name variations

"

Education place

Education institution

Activity place

Paris

Activity institution

French Oratory

Activity start date

Activity end date

1712

Place of birth

Dieppe

Date of birth

1638

Place of death

Paris

Date of death

1712

Bibliographical references

https://www.zotero.org/groups/2447618/euqu_european_quran/collections/W8V4AJZW/tags/Richard%20Simon/item-list

Descriptive card

Born in 1638, Richard Simon is a French exegetical scholar known as the father of historical critique of the Old and the New Testament. His innovative approach to the Bible led to his exclusion from his order, the French Oratory, and to the suppression of his first major exegetical work, Histoire critique du Vieux Testament (1678). Besides Biblical exegesis, Richard Simon had a sustained interest in the comparative study of religions. In 1675, he translated into French an account of the Levant by the jesuit Giralomo Dandini (d. 1634). The work, entitled Voyage du Mont Liban, contains Dandini's observations and Simon's own corrections and reflections with the explicit aim to redress widespread misconceptions of Muslims and Islam. His Histoire critique de la creance et des coûtmes des nations du Levant (1684) contains a dispassionate portrayal of islam and muslim customs. In 1684, he published a translation of the Venetian Rabbi Leone Modena's Ceremonies et coûtumes qui s'observent aujoud'huy parmy les Juifs (1684).

Entry author

Emmanuelle Stefanidis