Richard Simon

Theologian and biblical scholar, born in Dieppe, NW France. He became a member of the Oratory in Paris (1659), where he lectured on philosophy and catalogued oriental manuscripts. His free-thinking Histoire critique du Vieux Testament (1678) led to his expulsion from the order. He retired to Dieppe, where he died, and is regarded as the father of Biblical exegesis.

It was shortly before this time that there were sown the seeds of that enmity with the Port-Royalists which filled Simon's life with many bitter troubles. Simon's criticisms aroused lasting indignation among Arnauld's friends and admirers. He also aroused the ill-will of the monks of the Benedictine order when, in support of a friend who was engaged in a lawsuit with the Benedictine monks of Fécamp, Simon composed a strongly-worded memorandum. The charge of Jesuitism was also brought against Simon, on the grounds that his friend's brother was an eminent member of that order.

The commotion in ecclesiastical circles was great, and Simon's removal not only from Paris but from France was seriously considered. He had hoped, through the influence of Père la Chaise, the king's confessor, and the duc de Montausier, to be allowed to dedicate the work to Louis XIV, but, as the king was absent in Flanders at the time, the volume could not be published until he had accepted the dedication, though it had passed the censorship of the Sorbonne, and the chancellor of the Oratory had given his imprimatur. The printer of the book, in order to promote the sale, had caused the titles of the various chapters to be printed separately, and to be put in circulation. With the intention of harming sales of the work, which was known in theological circles to have been long in preparation by Simon, the Messieurs de Port Royal had undertaken a translation into French of the Prolegomena to Brian Walton's Polyglott.

To counteract this, Simon announced his intention of publishing an annotated edition of the Prolegomena, and added to the Critical History a translation of the last four chapters of that work, which had formed no part of his original plan. The freedom with which Simon expressed himself on various topics, and especially those chapters in which he declared that Moses could not be the author of much in the writings attributed to him, especially aroused their opposition. a decree of the council of state was obtained, and after a series of paltry intrigues the whole impression, consisting of 1300 copies, was seized by the police and destroyed, and the animosity of his colleagues in the Oratory rose to so great a height against Simon that he was declared to be no longer a member of their body. Simon, however, at first opposed this, in hopes of overcoming the opposition of Bossuet by making certain changes in the parts objected to. The negotiations with Bossuet lasted a considerable time, but finally failed, and the Critical History appeared, with Simon's name on the title page, in the year 1685, from the press of Reenier Leers in Rotterdam. The edition of Leers was a reproduction of the work as first printed, with a new preface, notes, and those other writings which had appeared for and against the work up to that date.

The work consists of three books. The first deals with questions of Biblical criticism, properly so called, such as the text of the Hebrew Bible and the changes which it has undergone down to the present day, the authorship of the Mosaic writings and of other books of the Bible, with an exposition of Simon's peculiar theory of the existence during the whole extent of Jewish history of recorders or annalists of the events of each period, whose writings were preserved in the public archives, and the institution of which he assigns to Moses. He had, with the exception of the theory above mentioned, contributed nothing really new on the subject of Old Testament criticism, for previous critics as L Cappel, Johannes Morinus (1591-1659) and others had established many points of importance, and the value of Simon's work consisted chiefly in bringing together and presenting at one view the results of Old Testament criticism. The Protestants felt their stronghold--an infallible Bible--assailed by the doubts which Simon raised against the integrity of the Hebrew text. le Clerc ("Clericus") in his work Sentimens de quelques théologiens de Hollande, controverted the views of Simon, and was answered by the latter in a tone of considerable asperity in his Réponse aux Sentimens de quelques théologiens de Hollande, over the signature "Pierre Ambrun," it being a marked peculiarity of Simon rarely to give his own name.

The remaining works of Simon may be briefly noticed. In 1689 appeared his Histoire critique du texte du Nouveau Testament, consisting of thirty-three chapters, in which he discusses the origin and character of the various books, with a consideration of the objections brought against them by the Jews and others, the quotations from the Old Testament in the New, the inspiration of the New Testament (with a refutation of the opinions of Spinoza), the Greek dialect in which they are written (against C. This was followed in 1690 by his Histoire critique des versions du Nouveau Testament, where he gives an account of the various translations, both ancient and modern, and discusses the manner in which many difficult passages of the New Testament have been rendered in the various versions. The last work of Simon that we need mention is his Nouvelles Observations sur le texte et les versions du Nouveau Testament (Paris, 1695), which contains supplementary observations upon the subjects of the text and translations of the New Testament.

As a controversialist Simon displayed a bitterness which tended only to aggravate the unpleasantness of controversy.