On
October 20th, 2012 professor emeritus Frans Neirynck
passed away in the Retirement Home of Saint
Bernard in Bertem. Frans
Neirynck was born on May 15, 1927. He was
ordained a priest on May 30, 1953 in Bruges and then he studied in the Faculty
of Theology at KU Leuven, where he completed his doctorate in 1957 and defended
his dissertation entitled "The Infancy
Narrative in the Gospel of Luke" under the
supervision of Albert Descamps. From 1957
to 1960 he was a professor in the Major Seminary in Bruges and on December 20, 1960
he was appointed successor of his supervisor
in Leuven. He started as a docent (1961). In 1962 he became
a full professor of New Testament exegesis. From
1968 to 1972 he was the dean of the newly
established Dutch-speaking faculty of theology. With
the support of his colleague Maurits Sabbe he
initiated the English programme which boosted
the international esteem of the faculty. Together
with Maurits Sabbe he founded the Flemish
Bible Foundation which was launched in 1968.
He retired in 1992, but this does not mean that his
scientific activity ended at that point.
As a
scholar and researcher Neirynck was a tireless scholar
who devoted his life to the literary study of the gospels.
He argued and defended the priority of Mark, the
two source theory and the dependence of John
on the Synoptics.
In his
work he was always very accurate and meticulous,
he relied on an exhaustive overviews of the scholarship that reached far beyond
to the twentieth century. He configured the data which he
collected into useful exegetical tools in order to stimulate further
research. He defended a pronounced and well argued position of his own and
tested it in ongoing international dialogue
with New Testament scholars all over the world. He
published numerous scientific
publications, was the driving force behind the annual Colloquium Biblicum
Lovaniense, which had been founded in 1949, the Ephemerides
Theologicae Lovanienses and the Bibliotheca
Ephemeridum Thelogicarum Lovaniensium,
the three Leuven institutions inextricably connected to him and the 'Louvain School'.
Prof.
Neirynck was a member of international exegetical
societies as well as the Belgian Royal Academy of
Science and Fine Arts. In 1989-1990 he was the president of the prestigious Society
of New Testament Studies. He supervised large numbers of students in the preparation
of their doctorates and supported them beyond in their continuing
research after the completion of their doctorates.
Without exaggeration, one can say that Professor
Neirynck left a mark on New Testament exegesis and more specifically on the
study of the Gospels in the second half of the
twentieth century.
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