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Paulin Martin

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French Biblical scholar, born at Lacam, Lot, 20 July 1840; died at Amélie-les-Bains, Pyrénées-Orientales, 14 Jan., 1890. His secondary studies were made at the petite séminaire of Montfaucon, and his theology at St. Sulpice. Here came under the influence of Le Hir. At the end of his theology, Martin was too young for ordination; so he went to the French Seminary, Rome, attended the lectures at the Gregorian University, and was raised to the priesthood in 1863. He remained in Rome until 1868, obtained a doctorate in sacred theology and licentiate in canon law and started is life study in Semitic languages. He worked chiefly at Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, and Arabic. It was as a Syriac scholar that he first attracted attention. Abbé Martin was in France ten years, as curate in various parishes of Paris, before his appointment to the chair of Sacred Scripture and Oriental Languages in the Institut Catholique of Paris, which he filled from 1878 to 1890. The time of literary activity of Abbé Martin was the twelve years of his professorship at the Institut. His best work is said to be the lithographed lectures delivered from 1882-1886: "Introduction à la critique textuelle du N.T., partie théorique" (Paris 1882-1883); a supplement thereto, "Description technique des manuscrits grecs, relatif au N.T., conservés dans les bibliothèques des Paris, (Paris 1883); Introduction à la critique textuelle du N.T., partie pratique" (4 vols., Paris, 1884-86). These four volumes contain studies in the ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, the authenticity and historicity of disputed fragments of the new testament — notably the ending of Mark, the bloody sweat, the woman taken in adultery, the three heavenly witnesses. In regard to this last fragment he carried on a controversy with MM Vacant, Maunoury, and Rambouillet in the "Revue des sciences ecclésiastiques" (1887-1889) and in "La Contoverse" (1888), Earlier writing of Abbé Martin were: "Oeuvres grammaticales d'Abu-el-Faraj. dit Bar Habræus" (Paris, 1872); "Grammatica chrestomathia, et glossarium linguæ syriacæ" (Paris, 1873); "Histoire de la Ponctuation ou de la massore chez les Syriens" (Paris, 1875). In addition he published a general introduction to the Bible (Paris, 1887-89).