Benedict Pereira

Benedict Pereira (Pereyra, Perera, Pererius) (born about 1535, at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain; died 6 March1610, at Rome) was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher, theologian, and exegete.

Life

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and Sacred Scripture in Rome.

Works

He published eight works, and left a vast deal of manuscript. (Sommervogel, infra, mentions twelve sets.)

The main difficulties of the "Book of Genesis" are met in "Commentariorum et disputationum in Genesim tomi quattuor" (Rome, 1591-99). This is a mine of information in regard to the Deluge, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, etc., and was highly rated by Richard Simon ("Histoire critique du Vieux Testament", III, xii).

The "Commentariorum in Danielem prophetam libri sexdecim" (Rome, 1587) are much less diffuse. Other writings published by Pereira were five volumes of exegetical dissertations on: "Exodus", 137 dissertations (Ingolstadt, 1601); "The Epistle to the Romans", 188 dissertations (Ingolstadt, 1603); "The Apocalypse", 183 dissertations (Lyons, 1606); "The Gospel of St. John", 214 dissertations on the first nine chapters (Lyons, 1608); 144 dissertations on five following chapters (Lyons, 1610). To the fourth volume of the dissertations is appended a work of twenty-three dissertations to show that Mohammed was not the Antichrist, of the Apocalypse and of Daniel.

References

*Sommervogel, "Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jesus", VI, 499-507; IX, 764;
*Hugo von Hurter, "Nomenclator", I (Innsbruck, 1892), 182.