Jean Astruc
From Philosopedia
Astruc, Jean (19 March 1684 - 5 May 1766)
Astruc, a French physician, became the founder of bible criticism. He received his masters degree when only 17 and at 19 submitted his dissertation on decomposition for his doctorate.
He served as Professor of Anatomy at Toulouse, then Montpellier, and later Professor of Medicine at Paris. In 1753, he published his Conjectures sur les mémoires originaux dont il parait que Moise s’est servi pour composer le livre de Genèse (Conjectures), proposing that Moses appeared to have composed the book of Genesis.
Astruc wrote the first great treatise on syphilis and venereal diseases, Venereis, Libri Novem (1753).
His father was a Protestant minister who had converted to Catholicism, but the House of Astruc was of medieval Jewish origin.
Freethought historian Joseph McCabe noted that this was the first time the Mosaic narrative was divided into Jahvist and Elohist documents. According to historian J.M. Robertson, Astruc died without the sacraments.
