PAREUS, DAVID, was the son of John Wang ler, and born at Francostein, a Silesian town, in 1548. He was educated at Hirchberg and Heidel berg, and made great proficiency in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In accordance with a custom not 'infrequent with scholars of that age, and of which Melancthon is an instance, he substituted for his father's name its Greek equivalent [lIapeios being the literal rendering of IVaengler ; from Hapecd (German IVange), a cheek]. Pareus, who had at Hirchberg been induced by his tutor, Christopher Schilling, to renounce Lutheranism, became a warm adherent of the Reformed Communion. After this he wrote much in opposition to the special Lutheran doctrines ; nor were his polemics confined to Protestant opponents, as his treatises against Cardinal Bellarmine, and his dispute with the Jesuit Magirus, attest. It is, however, for his Biblical pursuits, which were considerable, that Pareus has a place in our work. His son Philip, who published his father's works in three [actu ally four in three] folio volumes, at Frankfort in 1647, has, in the appendix of his biographical sketch, enumerated upwards of fifty treatises on the Holy Scriptures. Most of these are Adver saria, or brief notes on certain books. The full Commentarii are confined to the books of Genesis, St. Matthew, the Epistle to the Romans, the
First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Epistle to the Galatians, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the Epistles of St. Peter, and the Apocalypse. Philip Pareus, his learned son, added Commentarii on the Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and of St. Jude. It will give the reader an idea of the difference between the Commentarii and the Adversaria, if we state that the Commentary' on Genesis occupies 381 pages, and the Notes' on Exodus, only 21 pages of the first of the folio volumes. Although the Biblical writings of Pareus are generally super seded, it is impossible to deny to them considerable merit, both in the exegetical exposition of the sacred text and in the practical deductions which are appended to the chapters as Thearemata pi-ac t/ea. The greatest drawback td this merit arises from the long theological (chiefly polemi6.1) dis cussions with which the commentary is overbur dened. Pareus, who from advanced years declined the office of commissioner to the Synod of Dort, to which he had been nominated as a mark of respect by the States-General, died at Heidelberg in 1622.—P. H.