Jan Mazerski SDB (1901-1944), biblista i orientalista

Abstract

After studying in Rome and Jerusalem and conducting scientific explorations in Egypt, England, Holland, and France, Fr. John Mazerski served as a theologian and biblical scholar in Poland from 1933 to 1944. He was one of those scholars who in the fourth decade of the twentieth century reinvigorated Polish science, deepening expertise in biblical studies. He drew extensively on current archeological discoveries, particularly texts of neighboring cultures of Israel, to verify existing views. He believed that it is necessary in biblical exegesis to include the wider oriental cultural and religious environment because it has a significant effect on the shape and meaning of the biblical text. He included Jewish apocryphal literature among significant research sources. His study of the biblical texts in their original languages, search for ancient models which help to understand the biblical message, and respect for the Vulgate, the Bible of the Church, indicate that Fr. J. Mazerski was a biblical scholar, serving the Church in a competent and modern way. Unfortunately, he departed prematurely, dying in a bomb attack during World War II, only partially fulfilling his research, teaching and publishing intentions.