Jerusalem Letter 2007b - École biblique et archéologique française

Transcription

NOUVELLES DE JÉRUSALEM
Aux anciens et aux amis
de l'École Biblique
et Archéologique Française
Number 84, January 2008
THE COPPER SCROLL FROM QUMRAN
The Background
On 20 March 1952 Roland de Vaux’s team found two rolls of
copper in cave 3 at Qumran. They were so heavily oxidized that it
proved impossible to unroll them. Eventually they were sawn
lengthwise into 23 semi-circular segments, and were displayed in the
Archaeological Museum in Amman, Jordan. The curved shape made
accurate photographs impossible, and thus intensified the difficulties
of interpretation. This was all the more frustrating because the
document listed 64 places in the Holy Land where great treasures
were hidden!
In 1993 the condition of the copper segments gave rise to
concern. At the urging of Jean-Baptiste Humbert of the École
Biblique, Safwan at-Tall, then Director of Antiquities of the Kingdom
of Jordan, requested the aid of Électricité de France (EDF) to
conserve and restore a unique treasure that had become extremely
fragile. At the laboratory EDF-Valectra a highly specialized team of
metallurgists took the document apart, and cleaned the various pieces
on which there was still a deposit obscuring the writing. An
individualized shell in thermoformed polystyrene was designed to
hold the restored pieces of each segment in place.
The EDF also created a copper copy of the scroll. The experts
took a negative image of each segment by moulding its surface with
a sheet of silicone. These sheets were flattened and juxtaposed to
recreate the original order of the document. A plaster mould
transformed the negative into an exact replica of the text as if it had
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Nouvelles de Jérusalem 2007
been unrolled. From this another silicone copy was made to which a
fine coat of graphite carbon was applied. This made it electrically
conductive and a two-millimetre coat of copper was deposited by
means of electrolysis.
The Revised Critical Edition
The definitive edition of this unique text comes in two
magnificent volumes, Le rouleau de cuivre de la grotte 3 de Qumrân
(3Q15). Expertise─Restauration─Épigraphie, published in 2007 by
Brill of Leiden, with the financial aid of EDF, in the collection
‘Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah’ (STDJ 55/I-II). The
quality of the luxurious presentation is underlined by the unusual size
of the volumes (37.5 x 28.5 cm). This expensive option was the only
way to permit 1:1 photographs both in the report on the
conservation/restoration of the copper and in the effort to decipher the
letters hammered into the metal.
The extremely detailed technical report by N. Lacoudre and D.
Brizemeure of the work undertaken by EDF, which runs to 165 pages,
will no doubt be of great interest to specialists. It will certainly be of
immense utility to future archaeologists when faced with the necessity
of preserving highly fragile metallic remains.
As the author of the editio princeps of the Copper Scroll in 1962
Josef-Tadeusz Milik was naturally offered the opportunity to reread
the text under greatly improved conditions. When he found that it was
beyond his strength, he passed the responsibility to Émile Puech. To
have a flat text that could be photographed and examined from any
angle immeasurably facilitated his task. He had the further advantage
of digitalized high resolution X-rays which made touching up directly
on the screen possible.
In a long introduction Émile deals briefly with the various
editions of 3Q15, dates it shortly before the fall of Qumran in AD 68,
and then turns to a discussion of the different theories that have been
proposed to explain the list of treasures. He personally believes that
the treasures belonged to the Essene movement. Wealth undoubtedly
came with the High Priest who joined the movement in 152 BC. New
members, once they had finished their probation, were expected to
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sell their properties and to put all they had into the common chest. For
the Essenes the Temple was corrupt in so many aspects that it no
longer had a right to receive the taxes that were due to it. But this
money belonged to God, and could not be retained for one’s personal
benefit. Thus, once the break with the Temple became definitive,
money accumulated for over a century in the treasury of the Essene
movement. It would have been imprudent to keep it all in one place.
Dispersion was an obvious safety measure. The text’s highly laconic
pointers to the hiding places would, of course, have been only aidesmémoires to the Essenes in charge of the ever-growing fund.
The work of the epigrapher follows the standard pattern: Hebrew
text transcribed, French translation, and commentary both
philological and geographical for each of the twelve columns in turn.
Then follows an unusual and most welcome novelty, the Hebrew text
of each column with a French and English translation.
The second volume is devoted entirely to photographs and
drawings. Plates 333 to 383 show the letters revealed by the X-rays
and facsimile. The facing pages display Émile’s 1:1 transcription,
which also shows the saw-lines where the scroll was cut apart, and his
restorations in hatched letters. The precision and attention to minute
detail in this transcription is perhaps the most graphic illustration of
the care and intelligence that will make this edition and interpretation
of the Copper Scroll the one against which all others will be
measured.
The Launch
The two magnificent volumes were unveiled to the academic
community of Jerusalem in the Grande Salle of the École Biblique on
30 January 2007. The session was opened by the Director, JeanMichel Poffet, OP, who outlined the contributions of the École
Biblique to Qumran research before introducing the three academic
speakers. Prof. Florentino García Martínez (University of Leuven,
Belgium) talked about the prestigious series (STDJ) in which 3Q15
appears, and for which he is responsible. The founding editor, he
graciously emphasized, was J. P. M. van der Ploeg, OP (1946-47).
Jean-Baptiste Humbert outlined the difficulties that bedevil the
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publication of the archaeology of Qumran. Finally Émile Puech
spoke of his involvement in the decipherment of 3Q15. The
microphone then passed to Machiel Kleemans, who is a senior
acquisitions editor at Brill. He touched on Brill’s long involvement in
the publication of Qumran research before formally presenting the
two volumes to Jean-Michel Poffet, together with a third book which
Jean-Baptiste had co-edited with Katharina Galor & Jurgen
Zangenberg, Qumran. The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Archaeological Interpretations and Debates. Proceedings of a
Conference held at Brown University November 17-19, 2002 (STDJ
57; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006). A gratifying afternoon ended with a
champagne reception hosted by Brill in the great gallery of the École
Biblique.
Presentation in Paris
The Copper Scroll could not have been restored and the
magnificent volume could not have been published without the
massive financial contribution of the Foundation of Électricité de
France, to which we express our deepest gratitude. The EDF went a
step further on 6 March 2007 when it hosted a gala occasion at their
premises Espace EDF Electra, 6 rue Récamier, Paris, to present the
publication of the restored Copper Scroll (3Q15) to the general
public. The invitation was issued in the names of Jean-Michel Poffet,
Director of the École Biblique, Yves Bamberger, Directeur EDFRecherche et Développement, Membre de l’Académie des
Technologies, and Elisabeth Delorme, Déléguée au mécénat et aux
partenariats d’EDF. One of the guests was Henri de Contenson (195153), who was working in Cave 3 the day the Copper Scroll was found.
Conferences were given by Florentino García Martínez,
“Qumrân au XXIe siècle: changements et perspectives après 60 ans
d’études”, and Émile Puech, “Quelques résultats de la restauration du
Rouleau de cuivre de Qumrân grâce au mécénat de la Fondation
EDF”. They were followed by a brief account of the new technologies
developed by the EDF experts both to preserve the original and to
produce an exact flat replica in copper.
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This was the first in a series of three presentations which
celebrated the collaboration of the EDF in major projects of scientific
restoration. The others were “La reconstitution de la colonne des
danseuses de Delphes” and “La préservation des décors peints et
gravés de Lascaux”.
While in Paris on this occasion the Director took the opportunity
to pay his respects to Jean Leclant, Sécretaire perpétuel de
l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, who had been seriously
ill, and to present a copy of Le rouleau de cuivre de la grotte 3 de
Qumrân (3Q15). Expertise─Restauration─Épigraphie to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs in the person of Michel Pierre in gratitude for the
cooperation of the French government in the successful conclusion of
this long saga.
C OLLOQUIUM
ON THE
L ITERAL S ENSE
In the context of its on-going project, The Bible in its Traditions,
the École Biblique organized and hosted a colloquium in Jerusalem
entitled Le sens littéral . . . (28-30 November 2007). The session was
opened by Jean-Michel Poffet, OP , Director of the École Biblique,
and there were two contributions each morning and afternoon.
I. Au plus près de la lettre. . . Uri Gabbay (Hebrew University of
Jerusalem), “Deciphering Cuneiform Texts through the Ancient
Conceptions of Literal Meaning”; Francolino Gonçalves, OP (École
Biblique), “Enjeux et possibilités de la quête du sens historique
originaire — Est-ce la même chose que le sens littéral?” ; Christophe
Rico (École Biblique), “Traduire le sense littéral: l’exemple de saint
Jérôme”; Jean-Michel Poffet, OP (École Biblique), “Ouvrir le sens
littéral: apport d’Origène et d’Augustin”.
II. Où trouver le sens littéral? Jean-Emmanuel de Ena, OCD
(University of Fribourg, Switzerland), “Le Cantique des cantiques au
risque du sens littéral”; Mme Dominique Millet-Gérard (University
of Paris IV-Sorbonne), “Le sens littéral dans l’exégèse claudélienne”.
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III. Théories du sens littéral. Gilbert Dahan (CNRS et École
Pratique des Hautes Études), “Le sens littéral dans l’exégèse
chrétienne de la Bible au moyen âge”; Maurice Gilbert, SJ
(Pontifical Biblical Institute), “Les enseignements magistériels sur le
sens littéral”. Krzysztof Sonek, OP (École Biblique), “Meaning and
Significance. Navigating Across the Sea of Interpretation”. The
various contributions were then synthesized by Oliver-Thomas
Venard, OP, as the ground-work of a final general discussion.
PÈRE LAGRANGE
On 10 March 2007 the Dominican Nuns of Prouilhe, France,
hosted a colloquium to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the death of
Père Lagrange, OP, “the Saint Jerome of the 20th century”. The
theme was Père Marie-Joseph Lagrange: Dominicain, Orientaliste,
Exégète, Fondateur de l’École Biblique de Jérusalem, and there were
three speakers. Bernard Montagnes, OP, lectured on Lagrange as a
Dominican. Jean-Hugo Tisin, OP (1971-72), dealt with his
contributions to orientalism. And Hervé Ponsot, OP (1981-82),
studied him as an exegete and founder of the École Biblique.
DIRECTOR HONOURED
On 3 October, at the Latin Patriarchate, the Director, Jean-Michel
Poffet, was invested by the Patriarch, H.B. Mons. Michel Sabbah, with
the insignia of the rank of Commander of the Equestrian Order of the
Holy Sepulchre. Assisting the Patriarch were the Coadjutor, Mons.
Fouad Twal, and the Auxiliary for Jerusalem, Mons. Kamal-Hanna
Bathish. Representing the École Biblique were: Guy Tardivy (Prior),
Jean-Michel de Tarragon (Sub-Prior), Justin Taylor, SM (ViceDirector), Olivier-Thomas Venard (Secretary for Studies) and Sr
Martine Dorleans (Secretary). The wider Catholic community of
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Jerusalem was represented by Frs Pierre Grech, Alain Marchadour,
AA, and Jean-Luc Eckert, AA. After the ceremony, the Patriarch
entertained all those present to lunch.
Previously (5 June) Father Poffet had become a member of the
Commandery of St. Nicolas, Fribourg, Switzerland. On which
occasion he gave a lecture on “L’approach croyante et critique des
Écritures”.
NEW VICE-DIRECTOR
Justin Taylor, SM was elected Vice-Director by the Academic
Council on 25 May 2007. The election was confirmed by the Master of
the Order, Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP, as Chancellor of the École
Biblique on 5 July. For the first time in its long history a nonDominican forms part of the governing body of the École Biblique.
DIES ACADEMICUS
The opening of the academic year 2007-8 was celebrated on 15
November 2006 by a mass in the basilica at which His Beatitude
Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, presided. The sermon
was preached by Jean-Michel Poffet.
It was followed at 10.15 am by a lecture in the Grande Salle by
Yann Radalié, Professor of New Testament in the Waldensian
Theological Faculty in Rome, who spoke on “La figure de Paul dans
la théologie des épitres pastorales”. The attentive audience included
members of the Franciscan, Jesuit and Salesian faculties in Jerusalem
together with many friends of the École Biblique.
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ADDITIONS TO THE FACULTY
The faculty of the École Biblique received an appreciable boost
in numbers in the spring of 2007 when Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP,
Master of the Order and Grand Chancellor of the École Biblique,
promoted Olivier-Thomas Venard, OP, Gregory Tatum, OP,
Krzysztof Sonek, OP, and Marc Leroy, OP to the rank of
Extraordinary Professor (= Associate Professor). The age of the
faculty members now averages 54. If the one formally retired but still
active professor is removed, the average age drops to 49.
Olivier-Thomas Venard, PhD, STD, has already been
introduced to readers of the Nouvelles de Jérusalem because he
formally joined the faculty in October 2003.
Gregory Tatum, PhD, LSS, was born in Oklahoma City, USA,
in 1957. He entered the California province of the Dominican Order
in 1980, and was ordained priest in 1989. After his initial university
education at the University of San Diego (BA), and at the Dominican
School of Philosophy and Theology in the Graduate Theological
Union, Berkeley CA (BA, MDiv), he studied at the Pontifical Biblical
Institute, Rome, which awarded him the LSS in 1992. Subsequently
he entered the doctoral program in New Testament and Christian
Origins at Duke University, Durham NC, whence he graduated with a
PhD in 1997. He was then appointed Assistant Professor of NT at the
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, where he taught until
he came to the École Biblique in 2005. He has published New
Chapters in a Life of Paul. The Sequence of His Career (CBQMS 41;
Washington DC: CBA, 2006), and co-edited Redefining FirstCentury Jewish and Christian Identities. Essays in Honor of E. P.
Sanders (CJA; Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press, 2007). Gregory will
teach Paul and Advanced Greek.
Born in Gliwice, Poland, in 1971 Krzysztof Sonek, DPhil, LSS,
entered the Polish province of the Dominicans in 1991, and was
ordained priest in 1998. After receiving his STL from the Catholic
University of Lublin (2001) and LSS from the Pontifical Biblical
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Commission (2002), the École Biblique sent him for a doctorate in
Old Testament at Oxford University, England. On 18 October 2007
he successfully defended his thesis, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in
Old Testament Narratives: A Hermeneutical Study of Gen. 21.1-21.
The actual conferring of the DPhil will take place at a ceremony in
Oxford on 1 March 2008. In the first two terms of his two last years
at Oxford he taught the Beginners’ Hebrew Class for the Theology
Faculty of the University.
Marc Leroy, STL, LSS, first saw the light of day in SaintNazaire, France, in 1970. Before entering the Dominican Province of
France in 1996 he had aquired a Diplôme de Gestion Administrative
from the Centre National des Arts et Métiers, and served a year in the
Air Force. He was ordained priest in 2003, the same year that he
aquired the STL from the Institut Catholique de Lyon, France.
Subsequently he was sent to the École Biblique to prepare the LSS
exam for the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which he passed with
high marks in 2007. He has published two articles and many book
reviews in La Vie Spirituelle, and is responsible for the Lettre aux
Amis of the École Biblique. He will teach the Minor Prophets and
Biblical Hebrew.
Pawel Trzopek, STL, BSS was born in Kraków Poland, in 1972.
Having entered the Polish province of the Dominican Order in 1991,
he was ordained priest in 1998. He was awarded the STL by the
Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, in 2001, and the following
year received the BSS from the Pontifical Biblical Commission,
Rome. He began work in the library of the École Biblique in 2004,
and on his appointment as Librarian on 25 May 2007 became ex
officio a member of the faculty of the École Biblique. He is studying
for the LSS at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical Studies and
Archaeology, Jerusalem.
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ACTIVITIES OF PROFESSORS
Jean-Michel Poffet, Director of the École Biblique, lectured on
“Relire l'histoire d'Israël: les nouvelles problématiques et leurs
conséquences” to the Curia Generalitia of the Dominican Order at
Santa Sabina, Rome in January 2007.
On 23 April Father Poffet gave a lecture “Quand l’archéologie
bouscule les croyants” at the Jordan Institute for Diplomacy, Amman,
at the invitation of the Swiss ambassador, Paul Widmer, and the
Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. His Royal Highness Prince
Hassan honoured the École Biblique by his presence, and Father
Poffet took the opportunity to present him with a copy of the
definitive edition of the Copper Scroll (see above). That evening the
Swiss Ambassador hosted a dinner to which were invited the
ambassadors of France and Georgia in addition to Catholic, Orthodox
and Muslim religious leaders, whose mutual respect and fraternity is
typical of Jordan and virtually unique in the region.
Father Poffet spent 26 April to 1 May 2007 in Switzerland. After
the opening of the École Biblique’s archaeological exhibition in
Geneva (see below), he went to his hometown Fribourg. Over the
following weekend he preached at the masses of the Mission
catholique de langue française in Zurich, a parish that has been
particularly generous in its financial support for the École Biblique.
On 30 April he was in Sion at the invitation of the bishop, Mgr
Norbert Brunner, to deliver two lectures linking the reading of the
Bible and experience of the Middle East, “Regards sur la croix” and
“Actualité de Paul dans le contexte des religions et cultures du
Proche-Orient”. These were part of the on-going formation of the
priests of the diocese.
While in Rome for a meeting of the Directorium of the Pontifical
University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) (29-30 May 2007) he took the
opportunity to visit the Grand Master of the Knights of the Holy
Sepulchre in order to thank him for the generosity of the Order to the
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École Biblique, not only the central house in Rome, but also the Order
in France and Switzerland.
He spent 17 July to 9 August 2007 in Bogota, Colombia, as a
delegate to the General Chapter of the Dominicans at which he
represented the École Biblique and the Albertinum, Fribourg,
Switzerland. He served on the Commission for the Intellectual Life.
The entire month of September 2007 was spent at the Dominican
University College, Ottawa, Canada, where he directed a graduate
seminar “L’herméneutique biblique: les Anciens et les Modernes” (6
hrs per week), and each Saturday lectured for 3 hrs to a general
audience on “Le 1er document du christianisme: approche exégètique
et pastoral de 1 Thess”. In addition he gave public lectures at Ottawa
(16 September) and Montréal (17 September) on “Les nouvelles
problématiques liées à la confrontation archéologie/lecture de la
bible”. While in Canada he took the opportunity to participate in a
meeting of the Board of the Canadian Friends of the École Biblique,
to whom he expressed our deepest gratitude for their financial
support, particularly of Canadian students.
Needing to return to Switzerland for a medical check-up he gave
a biblical retreat to the Sisters of St Maurice in Bex, Switzerland (411 November 2007). On 3 December he moderated a day of study on
Les frères qui se retrouvent. Actualité de la redécouverte de la
relation au Judaïsme ordanized by the Abbey of Abu-Gosh to
celebrate the century of the dedication of the church.
Luc Devillers began the New Year 2007 with a series of
intensive biblical sessions in Lille, France. On 8, 15, 22 and 29
January he conducted four two-hour sessions with a theologian,
Emmanuel Durand, OP, on the theme “Exégèse et théologie. Étude à
deux voix de Jn 1,19-51 et de Jn 11,45-54” for the Dominican
students in the first cycle. In addition he did a 4 hr class on “Initiation
à la critique textuelle du Nouveau Testament” for the Dominican
students in their propédeutique year (16 and 19 January). While in
Lille he gave a public lecture, “Incarnation et vie chrétienne. La 1e
Lettre de Jean”, at the Dominican priory (23 January).
Other committments were interspersed with these sessions. In
Amiens he spoke on “La figure du disciple dans saint Jean” to the
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priests of the three dioceses of the region in the context of ‘Les
journées de formation permanente’ au Centre spirituel diocésain (9
January), and also gave a public lecture “Le Christ, chemin vers le
Père dans le 4e évangile” at the same place (10 January). These were
followed immediately by an eight-hour session on “Lecture de textes
de saint Irénée de Lyon, Contre les hérésies” for the Carmelite Sisters
of Amiens (11-14 January).
Then it was the turn of Brussels, Belgium. On 16 January he gave
a public lecture, “La constitution dogmatique Dei Verbum (Vatican
II). Remarques et questions d’un exégète, quarante ans après”, at the
Dominican priory, where the following evening he spoke on “La 1e
Lettre de Jean, état de la recherche” in the context of the ongoing
formation of the Dominican community.
Returning to France he gave three public lectures on different
aspects of the theme “Quelques figures de croyants dans l’évangile
de Jean” for the parish of Wimereux (Pas-de-Calais, 25, 26, 27
January). Then he headed for the mountains, and conducted a 4.5hour session for the Dominican community of the Abbaye de
Boscodon (Hautes-Alpes) on “L’évangile de Jean” (1-3 February). In
Switzerland he gave a nine-hour course on “Être disciple de Jésus
selon saint Jean” to the Dominican nuns at Estavayer-le-Lac (6-10
February).
He concluded a very hectic four-week schedule with a visit to
Istanbul, Turkey. On 16 February he animated a meeting of the Italian
Dominicans in Galata, which focused on the work of an exegete and
the place of the Bible in the Dominican life. The following day he
spoke on “Être disciple de Jésus selon saint Jean” in the context of a
day of biblical formation for the Union of the Male and Female
Religious of Turkey. There were lighter moments at the Palais de
France, where he had a meeting with Jean-Christophe Peaucelle,
Consul Général de France (Vice-Consul in Jérusalem 19931996), and with Mgr Louis Pelâtre, the Roman Catholic bishop, and
the pastor of the French parish.
Luc (French Section) and Justin Taylor (English Section) were
lecturers for this year’s Bible Study Days organized by the Union of
Religious of Galilee. The subject was Faith and Life in the Primitive
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Church, and and the first two of the four study days were held on 21
October 2007 (Haifa), 25 November (Nazareth). From 26 to 30
November 2007 Luc gave a 10 hr course on “la Première lettre de
Jean” to the Benedictine sisters on the Mount of Olives.
The Latin Patriarch, S.B. Michel Sabbah, appointed Christian
Eeckhout a member of the Diocesan Commission on Pilgrimages on
5 November 2007. During the summer of 2007 he systematically
enlarged his knowledge of the Nile valley and the archaeological
museums in Egypt (28 June – 8 July). He also visited the museums in
Istanbul and St Saviour in Chora (26-30 July), and saw the exhibition
“The Black Pharaohs” at the Royal Museum of Mariemont in
Belgium. On 15 November 2007 he preached a bilingual sermon at a
mass celebrated at Saint Saviour’s Church, Jerusalem, in honour of
the feast of the King of the Belgians.
Francolino Gonçalves spent the month of March 2007 lecturing
in France. He was a Directeur d’études invité at the École Pratique
des Hautes Études (Section sciences religieuses), Paris, where he gave
a series of four two-hour lectures on “Deux systèmes religieux dans
l’Ancien Testament : de la concurrence à la convergence” (8,15, 22
and 29 March). On 16 March he spoke on “Méthodologie et
historiographie bibliques : le cas de la conquête babylonienne de Juda
(597-587 avant J.-C.)” at the Université d’Avignon et des Pays de
Vaucluse. At an interdisciplinary seminar on ‘Syncrétismes religieux’
au Proche-Orient ancien organized by Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin
(1977-79) at the Maison de la Recherche, Paris, he gave a talk on
“Syncrétisme religieux dans l’Ancien Testament”. During the summer
he gave one of the main papers, “Fondements du message social des
prophètes”, at the XIXth Congress of IOSOT, which was held in
Ljubljana, Slovakia (15-20 July 2007), and directed a session on “A
vida e a morte no Antigo Testamento” in the context of the Theology
Weeks organized by the Instituto S. Tomás de Aquino in Fatima,
Portugal (27 August 2007).
After his lecture at the Gaza exhibition in Geneva (see below),
Jean-Baptiste Humbert returned to France for medical tests. The
level of his PSA had given rise to a concern about possible prostate
cancer. He was so weak after the biopsy when he returned to
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Jerusalem on 13 May 2007 that he had to spend several days being
fed intravenously at St Joseph's Hospital. Cancer was detected. He
returned to Poitiers to prepare for the operation towards the end of
September, but affairs immediately became much more complicated
when the cruel presence of kidney stones made itself felt. Once that
problem was resolved, the prostate operation took place successfully,
and after a period of convalescence in France he returned to
Jerusalem on 4 November 2007.
Through the academic year Jerome Murphy-O'Connor gave a
series of seven illustrated monthly lectures on the theme The Wonders
of Jerusalem at Government House under the auspices of the United
Nations Truce Supervision Organisation. On 7 May he was operated
on for a cataract in his right eye at St John's Eye Hospital, Jerusalem.
The result was perfect, and he had time to get a new pair of spectacles
before departing for the USA on 7 June. Arriving in Chicago he
taught a 30-hour class on “Paul: Life and Letters” in the Summer
Institute of the Catholic Theological Union (11-22 June). From there
he went east to New York City where he gave a 30-hour course on
“Events in the Life of Jesus” at Fordham University (28 June-12
July). His final engagement was just a little further south at the
College of St Elizabeth, Morristown, New Jersey, where he offered a
12-hour course on his new book “Jesus and Paul: Parallel Lives” (1619 July). In the course of his vacation in Ireland he spoke on “The
Story of Paul” at Christ the King Church, Turner’s Cross, Cork (10
September), and on “A Life with the Scriptures in Jerusalem” at the
Dominican Biblical Institute, Limerick (20 September). While in
London he gave a talk “Paul as Pastor” to the faculty and students at
Allen Hall, the major seminary of the archdiocese of Westminster (3
October).
His return to Jerusalem for the beginning of the academic year
was blighted by a slight heart attack, which confined him to the
cardiac unit of the Sharei Zedek Medical Center from 16-24 October
2007. An angiogram, however, revealed no damage to the heart, and
the current speculation is that the problem had been caused by a
minor blockage, which subsequently dissolved itself.
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Étienne Nodet gave an 18-hour course “Ambiente ebraico del
primo cristianesimo” to two groups of seminarians at the Casa
Mamre, Jerusalem (5-8 February and 28-31 May 2007). While in the
USA to give a paper on “The Emphasis on Jesus’ Humanity in the
Earliest Kerygma” at a Princeton-Prague Symposium Methodological
Approaches to the Historical Jesus held at Princeton, NJ (18-22 April
2007), he also spoke on “Jesus’ Last Supper” to the young priests of
the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Newark, NJ (17 April). On 16
June he was a member of the jury which judged the thesis of F.
Voltaggio, La preghiera dei padri et delle madri d'Israele nella
tradizione ebraica alle origni del cristianesimo at the Franciscan
Faculty of Biblical Studies and Archaeology, Jerusalem. During the
summer he gave a 36-hr course “Biblical Theology” at the
Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Kitwe, Zambia (19 June-7 July
2007).
In addition to the conferences associated with the launch of the
definitive edition of the Copper Scroll (see above) Émile Puech gave
two papers — “Les manuscrits de la mer Morte et le Nouveau
Testament. Les maîtres et les espérances” and “Les manuscrits de la
mer Morte et le Nouveau Testament. Le Nouveau Moïse: quelques
pratiques de la Loi” — at a colloquium Qumran pomiedzy Starym a
Nowym Testamentem organized by the Biblical Insitute of the
Catholic University of Lublin, Poland (25-27 October 2007). In
December 2007 he made the long journey to Seoul, South Korea. At a
colloquium organized around an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Birth of Christianity. The Great
Discovery of the Century, he spoke on “How do the Scrolls help us
root Jesus’ Teaching in the Gospels?” (11 December). He lectured on
“What can the Dead Sea Scrolls teach us about Belief in the
Resurrection in Ancient Judaism?” at the International Forum for
Textual Criticism of theBible organized by the Korean Bible Society
(13 December). He had little time unfortunately to enjoy south-east
Asia because he had to rush back to Europe for two further lectures.
He addressed the Associazione Cultura e Vita of the Università degli
Studi di Modena e Reggio Emila, Modena, Italy, on “I monoscritti del
Mar Morto e il Nuovo Testamento” (17 December), and spoke on “Il
16
rotolo di rame. Nuove considerazioni” at the Centro San Dominico,
Bologna, Italy (18 December).
As usual during the second semester of the academic year 2006-7
Christophe Rico taught a course “Histoire du livre et de l’écriture” in
modern Hebrew in the French Department at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. He used the same language for a talk on “Le monde
hellénistique et la langue grecque” in the Department of General
History at Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv (27 February 2007). In the
spring he gave two lectures at the Ecole des Hautes Études, Paris,
“L’art du commentaire en Grèce: la naissance de l’herméneutique en
Occident” (8 March 2007) and “Le commentaire biblique dans le
judaïsme et le christianisme anciens: traits communs et différences”
(15 March 2007).
He spent from 4 to 18 September 2007 at the Catholic University
of Argentina, Buenos Aires, where he gave two courses, one at the
level of the doctorate, “Histoire des systèmes d’écriture” (32 hrs), and
the other, “Histoire du livre”, for a more general audience (9 hrs). In
Santiago, Chile, he spoke on “La Bibliothéque d’Alexandrie” at the
University of the Andes (19 September 2007), a talk that he repeated
the following day in Valparaiso at an institute dependent on the
Catholic University of Chile.
Marcel Sigrist spent from 28 January to 7 February 2007 in
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In Kuwait he was invited by the Dar alAthar al-Islamiyyah (the Center for Islamic Archaeology) to speak on
“La naissance de l’écriture en Mésopotamie”. He also lectured on
“Le Code de Hammurabi” at the French Cultural Center. While in
Kuwait he was the guest of the French ambassador, Mme Corinne
Breuzé, and was entertained to lunch in the Chairman’s Club, Burgar
Bank Tower, by Sheikah Hussah Sabah al-Salam al-Sabah. On 2
February he flew to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia where he was the guest of
the French consul general, Issah Muraut, and spoke on “La naissance
de l'écriture en Mésopotamie” in the French Cultural Center. He also
did a simplified presentation for schoolchildren whose program
included cuneiform writing and pictograms. On 4 February he flew to
Riyadh, where he was received by the French ambassador. Again he
gave two lectures, “La naissance de l’écriture” at the French Cultural
17
Center, and a simplified version of “Le Code de Hammurabi” for the
senior class of the local Lycée.
In May he made a visit to another part of the Arab world, this
time at the invitation of the Ben Ali Chair for Dialogue between
Civilizations and Religions of the University of Tunis – El Manar,
Tunisia, which hosted a colloquium Raison et Foi pour un monde
solidaire (7-9 May 2007). The title of his communication was “La
sagesse comme au-delà de la dialectique entre la foi et la raison
d'après Jean Gagnepain”. He was accompanied by Olivier-Thomas
Venard, who also spoke (see below). Their outward and return
journey included the 12-hour bus journey from Jerusalem to Cairo via
Taba and Suez. While in Cairo they twice enjoyed the hospitality of
the brethren at the Institut Dominicain d’Études Orientales.
At the beginning of this academic year he took off for a
sabbatical in the USA. He will spend it working on the cuneiform
collections at Yale University, New Haven.
Krzysztof Sonek began his teaching career at the École Biblique
with a paper delivered to the Graduate Research Seminar on
“Reading Scripture with T. S. Eliot: Literary Criticism versus Biblical
Exegesis” (11 October 2007). After his successful viva in Oxford (18
October 2007) he returned to Jerusalem to take an active part in the
Colloquium on the Literal Sense (see above).
In the context of the Festival Voix Publiques dedicated to the
theme ‘Déserts sources de vie’ held in Poitiers, France, 20-25 March
2007 Jean-Michel de Tarragon mounted a photo exhibition Visages
d’Orient: Les populations de la Palestine et de ses environs
photographiées au début du XXe siècle (with the financial aid of
Crédit Agricole) and lectured on “Les déserts d’Arabie explorés
1895-1917” (20 March).
On 12 February 2007 Justin Taylor, SM, gave the third Miriam
Sheffer Memorial Lecture, “‘The Bible in its Traditions’: A New
Project of the École Biblique” in the Grande Salle of the École
Biblique under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Christianity
of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Pontifical Biblical
Institute, Jerusalem. At the end of the first semester he left for New
Zealand, where he co-taught a course on the Synoptic Gospels at
18
Good Shepherd Catholic Theological College, Auckland. At the same
venue he also gave three public lectures on “Reality in the New
Testament” and two study mornings for the Auckland Catholic clergy
on “Apostle and Disciple” and on “Communion in Christ”. In April,
on his way back to the École he gave a retreat to Marists in Thailand.
In the second semester of the academic year 2006-7 he codirected, with Dr. Serge Ruzer of the Hebrew University, a graduate
seminar on “Reading the New Testament as Second Temple Period
Jewish Literature” at the Centre for the Study of Christianity,
Department of Comparative Religion, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. Other participants from the École were Gregory Tatum
and Olivier-Thomas Venard.
Under the auspices of the Union des Supérieures des Religieuses
de Terre Sainte he gave two lectures at the Christian Information
Center inside Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, on “Apôtre—disciple” (23 April
2007) and “Communion dans le Christ” (24 April 2007). Justin gave
a paper entitled “The New New Jerusalem Bible” at the Eleventh
International Orion Symposium hosted by the Orion Center for the
Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature and the
Center for the Study of Christianity at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem (8-21 June 2007).
At the Annual Meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association of
America held at the University of Santa Clara, CA, USA (4-7 August
2007) he co-directed the continuing seminar “The Bible in its
Traditions: The New Scientific Project of the Ecole Biblique” with
Oliver-Thomas Venard. At a symposium on The Concept of the One
God organized by the Bible Lands Museum in conjunction with the
exhibition “Three faces of Monothism” he spoke on “Christian
Trinitarian Monotheism” (17 October 2007). On 3 December 2007 he
gave a paper “Et si’l y avait toujours eu une Eglise venant de la
Circoncision . . .” at a day of study on Les frères qui se retrouvent.
Actualité de la redécouverte de la relation au Judaïsme organized by
the Benedictine Abbey of Abu-Gosh to celebrate the centenary of the
dedication of the church.
Gregory Tatum was co-convenor with Mary Kate Birge, SSJ, of
the Task Force on “Pauline Theology” at the annual meeting of the
19
Catholic Biblical Association held at Santa Clara University, Santa
Clara CA, USA (4-7 August 2007).
Pawel Trzopek returned to Poland for the first part of the second
semester 2006-7 for engagements both academic and pastoral. He
taught a 24 hr course on “The Gospel of John” at the Dominican
House of Studies in Kraków (23 March-16 April), and a six-hour
course on “How to Read the Bible” at the Dominican Novitiate in
Poznań (2-4 April). Concurrently with the latter he preached the
Passion Week retreat at the Dominican church in Poznań. Later in the
year he gave a second 24 hr course on “Revelation, Johannine and
Catholic Epistles” at the Dominican House of Studies in Kraków (21
Sept-1 Oct 2007; 28 Dec-7 Jan 2008).
Olivier-Thomas Venard has been named to the Patriarchal
Commission on Judaeo-Christian relations and participates regularly
in its monthly meetings. In January 2007 he gave a 12-hour course on
“Les différentes méthodes d’analyse et d’interprétation dans
l’exégèse contemporaine” at the Dominican House of Studies in
Bordeaux, France (13-16 January). The following month he took part
in a colloquium on The Fundamentalist Impulse and its Religious
Correctives organized by the Bernard and Barbro Osher Jerusalem
Center for Religious Pluralism at the Shalom Hartmann Institute,
Jerusalem (18-22 February 2007). In May he accompanied Marcel
Sigrist to Tunisia for the colloquium mentioned above, where he
spoke on “La sagesse comme idéal transreligieux au-delà de la
dialectique entre la foi et la raison à l’école de saint
Thomas d’Aquin”.
In the spring he initiated a 10-hour series of talks on “Cinq leçons
sur le Nouveau Testament” for a group of young diplomats in
Jerusalem (2, 30 March, 20 April, 18 May). He read a communication
“The Belief in Incarnation: Religious Humility or Intellectual Pride?”
at the second session of the colloquium Learned IgnoranceIntellectual Humility among Jews, Catholics and Muslims, which was
held this year at the Tantur Ecumenical Center, Jerusalem (15-18
June 2007). At the Annual Meeting of the Catholic Biblical
Association of America held at the University of Santa Clara, CA,
USA (4-7 August 2007) he co-directed the continuing seminar “The
20
Bible in its Traditions: The New Scientific Project of the Ecole
Biblique” with Justin Taylor, SM, at which he also gave a paper
“Possibilities offered by the Annotation in the History of Reception in
The Bible in its Traditions”.
On his way back to Jerusalem he gave two courses in France,
“Initiation à l’évangile selon saint Jean” to the studium of the
Cistercian abbey of Sept-Fons (18 hrs; 17-22 September 2007), and
“Du Corps de chair au corps du tete, histoire du texte du Nouveau
Testament” to the Dominican studium in Bordeaux (12 hrs; 24-28
September 2007). At the colloquium Chrétiens d’Orient in Paris
organized by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ecole
Pratique des Hautes Études, the Institut Européen des Sciences
religieuses, the Alliance Francaise, and the Institut du Monde arabe
(16-17 November 2007) he spoke on “Une expérience du dialogue
judéo-chrétien en Israel au quotidien”.
P UBLICATIONS
Luc Devillers, Review-article: “R. Meynet, L’évangile de Luc”
RB 114 (2007) 105-12; Review-article: “C. Keener, The Gospel of
John” RB 114 (2007) 113-22.
Christian Eeckhout, Three articles for Spiritualité 2007 under
the rubric ‘Le Psalmist’: Ps 87 (February 2007); Ps 127 (August), and
Ps 130 (December) - http://www.spiritualite2000.com; “Internet: La
Bible en ligne pour les francophones” Cahiers Évangile 139 (March
2007) 58-62.
Francolino Gonçalves, “Mundos bíblicos” Cadernos ISTA 18
(2005 – published 2007) 7-34; “Os caminhos da exegese” Revista
Dominicana de Teologia (São Paulo) 1/2 (2006) 91-103; “Raízes
Judeo-cristãs da Civilização Ocidental” Cadernos ISTA 19 (2006 –
published 2007) 5-45.
José Loza Vera, “Introducción al Pentateuco” in José Loza
Vera y Raúl Duarte Castillo, Introducción al Pentateuco. Génesis
(Biblioteca Bíblica Básica 3; Estella: Editorial Verbo Divino, 2007).
21
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Jesus and Paul. Parallel Lives
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007); Paolo. Un uomo
inquieto, un apostolo insuperabile (Cinsello Balsamo (Milano):
Edizioni San Paolo, 2007); “Greeters in Col 4:10-14 and Phlm 2324” RB 114 (2007) 416-26; “Gaius”, “Golgotha” and “Holy
Sepulchre” in vol. 2 of the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible
(Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 2007); Review-article: “R. Burns,
Damascus. A History,” RB 114 (2007) 122-28; Review-article: “E.
Stern, En Gedi I & Y. Hirschfeld, En Gedi II,” RB 114 (2007) 45463; Review-article: “R. Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. The
Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony,” RB 114 (2007) 621-30.
Étienne Nodet, “De Josué à Jésus, via Qumran et le ‘pain
quotidien’” RB 114 (2007) 208-36; “Pâque, Azymes et théorie
documentaire” RB 114 (2007) 499-534; “La dernière Cène de
Jésus” Le Nef (Aout 2007) 15-16; Review-article: “R. Gmirkin,
Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus. Hellenistic History
and the Date of the Pentateuch” RB 114 (2007) 615-21.
Jean-Michel Poffet, “Préface” to Comment la Bible saisit-elle
l’histoire. XXIe congrès de l’Association catholique française pour
l’étude de la Bible (Issy-les-Moulineaux, 2005) (LD 215; ed. D.
Doré; Paris: Cerf, 2007) 7-11.
Émile Puech, Le rouleau de cuivre (see above); edited with A.
Hilhorst and E. Tigchelaar, Flores Florentino: Dead Sea Scrolls and
Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour of Florentino García
Martínez (JSJSup 122; Leiden: Brill, 2007), to which he contributed
“L’ostracon de Khirbet Qumran (KhQ 1996/1) et une vente de
terrain à Jéricho, témoin de l’occupation essénienne à Qumran”, 139; with Joe Zias, “The Tomb of Absalom Reconsidered” Near
Eastern Archaeology 68/4 (2005 – published 2007) 148-65; “In
memoriam Jósef Tadeusz Milik” RQ n. 87 (2006) 335-39; “Les
identités en présence dans les scènes du judgment dernier de
4QInstruction (4Q416 1 et 4Q418 69 ii)” in Defining Identities: We,
You, and the Others in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Proceedings of the
Fifth Meeting of the IOQS in Groningen 27-28 July 2004 (STDJ 70;
ed. F. García Martínez & M. Popovic; Leiden: Brill, 2007) 147-73;
“Une nouvelle amulette en araméen christo-palestinien” in Sha’arei
22
Lashon: Studies in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Jewish Languages
presented to Moshe Bar-Asher (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2007);
with E. Eshel & A. Kloner, “Aramaic Scribal Exercises of the
Hellenistic Period from Maresha: Bowls A and B” BASOR n. 345
(2007) 39-62; “La soi-disant tombe perdue de Jésus” Biblia n. 59
(2007) 44-45; “La conception de la vie future chez les Esséniens”
Trajets 3 (Avril-Juin 2007) 58-66.
Christophe Rico, “L’énigme au chemins effacés: Pr 30,18-20”
RB 114 (2007) 273-77; “Une métaphore financière de l’épître aux
Philippiens: peplèrômenoi karpon dikaiosunês (Ph 1:11)” RB 114
(2007) 447-51.
Gregory Tatum, New Chapters in the Life of Paul. The Relative
Chronology of His Career (CBQMS 41; Washington DC: CBA,
2006); “PEPLHRWMENOI” RB 114 (2007) 451-53; Reviewarticle: “J. Klawans, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism and
Purity, Sacrifice and the Temple” RB 114 (2007) 278-81.
Justin Taylor, SM, “The Acts of the Apostles as Biography” in
The Limits of Ancient Biography (ed. Brian McGing and Judith
Mossman; Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2006) 77-88;
“The Altar to an Unknown God at Athens (Acts 17,23)” in José
Enrique Aguilar Chiu (1996-97), Franco Manzi (1992-93), et alii
(eds), “Il verbo di Dio è vivo”. Studi sul Nuovo Testamento in onore
del Cardinale Albert Vanhoye, S.I. (AnBib 165; Roma: Editrice PIB,
2007) 249-59.
Pawel Trzopek, “Jerozolima. Trzy światy (Jerusalem. Three
Worlds)” LIST n. 1, (2007) 8-15 + a number of photos; “Memszalah,
dorastanie do spotkania z Rabbim (Memshalah, growing up to meet
the Rabbi)” W drodze, 2/402 (2007) 66-73; “Jak Jerozolima stała się
piątą Ewangelią” (How Jerusalem became the Fifth Gospel), LIST
n. 7-8, 2007, pp. 26-33; “Kamień, który ostrzy nas wszystkich.
Rzecz o Orygenesie” (The Stone that sharpens us all. On Origen),
Teofil n. 1 (25), 2007, pp. 55-88.
Olivier-Thomas Venard, “Literary Mediation of Knowledge and
Biblical Studies”, Nova et Vetera (English edition), fasc. 4 (2006)
761-786; “Deux dominicains à Jérusalem » interview with Annie
Laurent regarding M.-J. Dubois, en collaboration avec O.-Th. Venard,
23
Nostalgie d’Israël (L’Histoire a vif; Cerf: Paris, 2006) in L’Homme
Nouveau, n. 1380 (2006) 3; « L’œuvre-vie du Fr. Marcel-Jacques
Dubois » Képhas n. 23 (juil-sept 2007) 171-82 ; “Le message actuel
du Père Marcel-Jacques Dubois OP”, Liberté politique 37, summer
2007. “Le Père Marcel-Jacques Dubois, une œuvre-vie à méditer”
Jérusalem : Bulletin diocésain du Patriarcat latin 73 (mai-août 2007)
105-109; “Naissance et développements d’une nouvelle
compréhension de la Bible dans l’Église catholique au XXe siècle”
(1/3), Képhas n. 24 (oct.-déc 2007) 239-246; “Is There a Thomist
Hermeneutic?” in Redeeming Truth: Considering Faith and Reason
(ed. S. Parsons & L.-P. Hemming; London: SCM Press, 2007) 12553.
RETIREMENT
At the end of the academic year 2006-7 José Loza Vera, OP,
retired from the École Biblique. He had been a professor of Old
Testament for twenty-four years, and considered that at the age of 65
it was time to return to Mexico in order to create a niche in which he
could work comfortably until God took him. He felt all the more free
to leave because Krzysztof Sonek, OP, fresh from his doctorate in
Old Testament at Oxford University, was ready to take over his
teaching responsibilities beginning in the academic year 2007-8.
José first came to the École Biblique as a student in 1969, after
having achieved an MA and STL at what is now the Dominican
University College in Ottawa, Canada (1964-69). He was particularly
interested in the work being done by François Langlamet, OP, and
under his direction wrote two brilliant mémoires “Catéchèses
étiologiques de l’AT” and “Exode 32 et la rédaction yéhoviste”,
which, unusually for a student, were published in the Revue Biblique
(1971) and Vetus Testamentum (1973) respectively. No sooner had
José completed his two years at the École Biblique than he was called
back to his province as professor of Old Textament in the newly
founded House of Studies, of which he was to serve two terms as
24
Regent. Despite a plethora of duties he gained the LSS from the
Pontifical Biblical Commission at the autumn session of 1972.
During this period he was invited to teach in other academic
institutions in Mexico, notably the Universidad Iberoamericana, and
the Instituto Superior de Estudios Eclesiásticos, from which the
Universidad Pontificia de México was born in 1982. During his
quarter-century at the École Biblique José continued to teach a course
at the Pontifical University of his native country.
François Langlamet had been appointed to the École Biblique to
teach the Pentateuch and the historical books. In the mid-1970s after
his involvement in the translation of 1-2 Samuel for the Traduction
Œcuménique de la Bible, however, his focus narrowed to the books
of Samuel and Kings, and they were to be the center of his research
for the rest of his career. Nonetheless he felt strongly that the École
Biblique should have a course on the Pentateuch. Thus in November
1982 he suggested to the faculty that his talented ex-student José
Loza be invited to teach in Jerusalem. The faculty agreed, and in a
generous response José arrived at the École Biblique in July 1983.
Thereafter he taught a course each year on one or other aspect of
Genesis or Exodus, and an advanced course on Biblical Hebrew,
except for the years 1988-91 when the latter class was taught by
Gerard Norton, OP.
In 1987 José became a member of the Pontifical Biblical
Commission and served until 2000. During these thirteen years the
Commission worked harder and was more creative than at any other
period in its long history. The fruits were three documents of great
importance, Unity and Diversity in the Church (1989 – of which José
produced the official Spanish translation in 1991), The Interpretation
of the Bible in the Church (1993), and The Jewish People and their
Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (2001).
As a professor at the École Biblique José tried to be attentive to
the great variety of approaches to the Bible. The problem was
particularly urgent for a specialist in the Pentateuch, because all the
old certitudes in that field were being abandoned, and a new
consensus had not yet come into being. Believing strongly that the
formation of the Pentateuch demanded a much more complex
25
solution than the traditional one, José took an active part in this quest,
and considers his two contributions to the debate, Las palabras de
Yahvé (Mexico, 1989) and Pentateuco I-II (Mexico, 1991), his most
important publications.
His colleagues and students formally said goodbye to José at a
cocktail party on 23 May 2007, and wished him health and happiness
in his well-merited retirement.
VISITING PROFESSORS
In the second semester of the academic year 2006-7 Paolo
Garuti, OP (University of St Thomas, Rome, Italy) taught two short
courses, “Initiation à la rhétorique ancienne pour l’étude du Nouveau
Testament” (January) and “Christologie des épîtres deutéropauliniennes” (February-March). Another short course was given by
Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin (1977-79; École Pratique des Hautes
Études, Paris, France), “La Sagesse hébraïque en question: étude de
textes sapientiaux bibliques, de Proverbes à Qohélet” (18 April-14
May). Michel Gourgues, OP (1973-74; CBA prof. 1984-85;
Dominican University College, Ottawa, Canada), who was the CBA
Visiting Professor, taught a full course, “Face au pluralisme religieux:
éclairages des évangiles synoptiques”.
In the first semester of the academic year 2007-8 Simon
Mimouni (1987-88; École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) taught
a short course “L’histoire de la communauté nazoréenne/chrétienne
de Jérusalem à partir des Actes des Apôtres. La question de la réunion
de Jérusalem (Ac 15,3 et Ga 2,1-10)” (17 October-12 December).
26
GOLDEN JUBILEE PROFESSORS
It is not unusual for professors of the École Biblique to have
exceptionally long teaching careers. Marie-Émile Boismard, OP, for
example, taught for 53 years (1948-2001), Raymond Tournay, OP,
for 52 years (1938-1990), and Pierre Benoit, OP, for 51 years (19331984). Such endurance, of course, is due in great part to the
exceptional conditions that the École Biblique offers its faculty,
namely, talented, committed students, and much time to research and
write in peace. It is all the more unusual, therefore, for two graduates
of the École Biblique to have reached, and surpassed, the golden
jubilee of their professional teaching lives amidst the confusion of the
‘real’ world with its competing demands. Their achievement merits
recognition.
Gilles-Dominique Mailhiot, OP
Gilles-Dominique Mailhiot of the Province of Canada spent from
1953 to 1955 in Jerusalem, and by his own admission it marked him
for life. It was one of the most extraordinary periods in the long life
of the École Biblique. Some of the first generation of
students/professors were still alive, e.g. the father of Palestinian
archaeology, Louis-Hugues Vincent, OP (1872-1960), and they had
the gratification of seeing Père Lagrange’s program of text and
monument come to full fruition in the publication of the fascicles of
the Bible de Jérusalem, which were synthesized into the first onevolume edition in 1956. It was also the era of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
when documents were pouring out of the Judean desert and Roland de
Vaux, OP, aided by students of the École Biblique including GillesDominique, was excavating at Qumran. It would have been
impossible not to have been swept up into the invigorating
intellectual dynamism of these two major projects.
Gilles-Dominique had already taught Scripture for three years in
the Dominican House of Studies, Ottawa (1949-52), before coming to
the École Biblique. On his return to Canada in 1955 he resumed his
27
teaching of both Old and New Testament there, and also at the Grand
Séminaire d’Ottawa, posts which he held until his formal retirement
in 1997 which, of course, was not the end of his academic activity.
He continued to teach up to 2005 when he reached the venerable age
of 85. Throughout his life Gilles-Dominique’s heavy teaching load
was accompanied by major administrative responsibilities. Named
Regent in 1960, he directed the House of Studies for 28 years, in the
course of which it was transformed from a medieval studium generale
into a modern academic institution, and he was transmuted into a
President. He won for it recognition as a pontifical faculty (1965) and
full membership in the Association of Colleges and Universtities of
Canada (1971), thus setting it on the course to its present status as a
University College with full academic rights and privileges.
Wilfrid Harrington, OP
Gilles-Dominique Mailhiot may not yet have left the École
Biblique when Wilfrid Harrington of the Irish Province arrived in the
autumn of 1955. Unlike the halcyon years of Gilles-Dominique’s
sojourn, Wilfrid’s stay in Jerusalem was interrupted by the Suez War.
Israel’s attack on Egypt on 29 October 1956 was supported by AngloFrench air raids on 1 November. Students at the École Biblique were
advised to go home in case the battle for the Suez Canal should
develop into a wider regional war. Wilfrid left Jerusalem at the last
minute on 31 October 1956 and, after what he described as ‘a mildly
adventurous journey’ through a region seething with tension, reached
Beirut, where he took ship for Italy. After successfully passing the
LSS exam before the Pontifical Biblical Commission, he returned to
Ireland to begin teaching at the Dominican House of Studies in
Tallaght, Co. Dublin in September 1957. His fifty years of instructing
Dominican students was acknowledged by a mass and festive lunch at
St Saviour’s Priory, Dublin (the current House of Studies), on 27
January 2007. Colleagues from the other institutions where he has
taught gathered at the original House of Studies in Tallaght on 25
March 2007 to pay tribute to him on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
28
The fifty years of Wilfrid’s ministry saw significant changes in
the Catholic Church in Ireland. He personally was the pioneer of the
biblical renewal. Single-handedly he brought Ireland into the era of
the historico-critical study of the Bible. The freshness and vigour of
his presentation of new ideas on both Old and New Testament in the
late 60s and early 70s inspired a group of young students to commit
themselves to professional biblical studies. I was one, and Professor
Sean Freyne of Trinity College, Dublin, another. We can both testify
with pride to the impact of his teaching on our careers.
More importantly Wilfrid began to publish. This was virtually
unheard of in Catholic theological circles in Ireland. The tall poppy
syndrome would certainly display itself in accusations of putting
one’s self forward, and, of course, there was the frightening
possibility that one might upset a superior, or God forbid a bishop.
Neither danger swayed Wilfrid. He felt that it was his responsibility to
reach out beyond his classroom to convey ideas that he found
liberating and exciting to the local church. Great teachers are not
always good pedagogues on paper, but he developed a style that was
at once elegant, simple, and exceptionally clear. The response was so
great that he felt that he could never divest himself of this biblical
apostolate in order to do the original research of which he was
perfectly capable. He was trapped by the oft-expressed expectation
that he would be the mediator between the pioneers and the pew.
It is perhaps difficult in the Ireland of today to imagine the sense
of pride engendered in Wilfrid’s first students by the appearance of
Irish biblical scholarship on the world market. There had, of course,
been predecessors, one thinks particularly of Mgrs Boylan and
Kissane, but their meagre contributions had nothing like the impact of
the torrent of books that Wilfrid poured out. To date he has published
48 books, of which 16 have been translated into other languages
including Japanese. There is no reason to think that the end is in sight.
His publications made Wilfrid very well known, and other
academic institutions in Dublin clamoured to have him on their
faculties: St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (1961-65), the Milltown
Institute of Philosophy and Theology (1966-), Trinity
College/University of Dublin (1966-85), and the Church of Ireland
29
Theological College (1985-). Only someone who knows the Irish
scene well will perceive from this list the extent to which Wilfrid was
a boundary-breaker. All of these institutions were rather carefully
protected preserves with strictly limited access. They did not open
their doors to everyone. His conquest was practical ecumenism at its
best.
Not surprisingly, invitations also came from overseas. Wilfrid
was particularly popular in the United States. He was the Flannery
Professor at Gonzaga University, Spokane WA (1983-84), and taught
summer school at Rosary College, Chicago IL (1965), San Rafael
College, San Rafael CA (1966-68), Dominican College, Sinsinawa
WI (1968-69), Providence College, Providence RI (1970-84), and St
Michael’s College, Colchester VT (1978-). He also taught at Banyo
Seminary, Brisbane, Australia (1972).
We congratulate Gilles-Dominique and Wilfrid on lives dedicated
to the pursuit of truth as revealed in the Sacred Scriptures and lived
with inexhaustible energy in the service of the Church.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Since the situation in Gaza made any work there impossible,
attention returned to Khirbet es-Samra in Jordan. The 17th campaign
funded by the French Foreign Ministry ran from 4 August to 3
September 2007 under the direction of Alain Desreumaux (1977-78;
CNRS, UMR 8167 – LESA) assisted by Jean-Baptiste Humbert,
who provided the report which follows. The other participants were
G. Thébault, engineer/surveyor (Paris), J. Gaborit (Univ. Paris), J.
Batri (Univ. Aleppo, Syria), V. Cuche (Univ. Paris-Sorbonne), D.
Baudrillart (Paris), and two students D. Colomb (Univ. Genève) et L.M. Leschalier de Lisle (Paris). Thirty young men from the village
were employed as workers. Thomas Bauzou, numismatist (Univ.
d’Orléans), assisted by Gaëlle Thévenin, spent a month during July
and August at the École Biblique to finish cleaning and studying the
coins.
30
In the first ten campaigns all attention focused on the Byzantine
levels because the original project was to determine the context of
tombstones inscribed in Greek and Aramaic. The Roman material at a
lower level proved equally interesting. Scattered indications show that
the site was a military and administrative centre before it bloomed
into a Christian city. To facilitate the publication of this material
soundings have been made since 2001. Three soundings were opened
in 2007, and these will be the last excavations.
A Second City Gate and a Church
Thus far only one city gate had been located, but nothing could
be done about it because it was under the dig house. It was decided to
explore further the northern sector of the rampart, which had been
rather neglected because it had been completely robbed out. The
foundations of another gate were discovered in an inward bend of the
wall. It was flanked by two rectangular towers. A church 15 m long
was built in the eastern tower, perhaps even before the defensive
system was abandoned. It is the tenth church on the site. Subsequently
it was incorporated into an Umayyad tower. Unfortunately there was
no time for a complete excavation.
A Roman Bastion
A building of unusual architectural quality was cleared
completely. Its white limestone masonry contrasts vividly with the
black basalt blocks of the rest of the site. It was a bastion with two
salients dominating the valley. It probably functioned as an
administrative building at the beginning of the occupation of the site
by the Roman army. The pottery is from the end of the C2 AD. The
northern part continued to be occupied until the site was abandoned.
Thus it offers continuous stratification for the eight centuries of the
life of Samra.
A Mysterious Building
In the south-east of the site a 30 meter long building was erected
in front of the city wall which abutted it. It was ruined and rebuilt
31
before the Byzantine period, and again abandoned. Only the eastern
chamber (10 x 4.5 m) was studied. The oldest element is a stone
gutter running along the base of the outside of the western wall. It
continues beneath the city wall to taper away in the dust. Since the
building is close to the large Roman pool one might think of a urinal,
which could be cleaned by sloshing buckets of water.
An excavation is never complete, but at some point one must
resist the temptation to do just a little bit more. Future sojourns on the
site will be dedicated to the study of the abundant documentation,
which is already well advanced. The analysis of the coins has been
completed. The data they furnished will be a valuable guide to
refining the history of the site, and the chronology they reveal will be
the backbone of our publication. The synthesis of Thomas Bauzou
indicates two distinct periods, the romanization of the site by the army
in the C2 and C3, and its flourishing christianization from the time of
Justinian.
JOHN STRUGNELL (1930-2007)
Once Father Roland de Vaux, OP, then Director of the École
Biblique, became conscious of the sheer volume of manuscript
fragments pouring out of the Judean desert he began to organize a
team to be responsible for their publication. The original members,
appointed in 1952, were D. Barthélemy, OP and J. T. Milik. In 1953
F. M. Cross, Jr, J. M. Allegro and M. Baillet were added. The
following year John Strugnell joined the group together with J.
Starcky and P. W. Skehan. He was only 24 and still working on a
graduate degree at Oxford, but he came strongly recommended by G.
R. Driver as the most promising Semitist of his generation. Even
before university he had been privileged to receive the extraordinary
linguistic training, which characterised the classical departments of
the best English schools. At St Paul’s in London, he once told me, his
class was challenged over one weekend to translate verses of the song
32
“O Clementine” into Greek that could be sung to the same tune.
Others of that age-group report that he read a Hebrew Bible for
recreation while out walking.
Supported by a Rockefeller grant, this group was able to work
full-time on the scrolls at the Palestine Archaeology Museum until
1960. The Suez War provoked a brief interlude (1956-57) during
which Strugnell taught at the Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago, and there met his future wife Cécile Pierlot, with whom he
had five children. When the Rockefeller money ran out the scrolls
experts had to find academic jobs whose onerous teaching and
administrative responsibilities left little time for work on the
fragments attributed to them, and in consequence severely disrupted
the program of publication. Strugnell spent five years at Duke
University before moving to Harvard University as professor of
Christian Origins in 1966.
From 1968 he spent his sabbaticals at the École Biblique. In
September 1984 Pierre Benoit, OP, arranged to have him elected by
the editorial team as his successor as editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea
scrolls publication project. It took two years for the Israeli
Department of Antiquities to agree. Thereafter Strugnell began to
come to the École Biblique for the summer and first semester each
year in order to speed up the rhythm of publication, whose slowness
had begun to cause serious concerns. Always available to our
students, his presence also drew other scholars to the École Biblique,
notably Hartmut Stegemann of the University of Göttingen and his
German colleagues, and Sr. Eileen Schuller, who continued to work
with him on ‘prayers and psalms’ material. Many will recall with
pleasure the stimulation and entertainment provided by colleagues
from a number of different countries as they debated the day’s
decipherments at the evening meal. Strugnell would have liked to
formalize this arrangement. Eileen Schuller wrote, “He always
dreamed of bringing together a group of scholars to work
collaboratively in Jerusalem for a year on the 4QInstruction text”.
What Strugnell published on the scrolls is minimal by
comparison with the output of others of his colleagues, but it was of
exceptional importance. He preferred to work in collaboration, and
33
the form it took was typical. He was the first to permit doctoral
students to work on unpublished scrolls, and he did not give them
minor fragments of negligable importance. He entrusted them with
uniquely valuable documents. Thus at Harvard he aided Carol
Newson to produce the critical edition of the Songs of the Sabbath
Sacrifice, and encouraged Eileen Schuller to edit 4Q380 and 4Q381
for her dissertation. The latter wrote, “I've been in contact with a
couple of friends these last days and we've been sharing memories of
John from our student days, and we all agree on the same points: his
dedication to his students, expressed in his willingness to read
whatever we submitted; to take it seriously enough to make detailed
comments and criticism; to encourage us to express our own views
(even when they disagreed with his). Long after we graduated, he
continued in that role, especially offering us encouragement as we
began our teaching and publishing”.
One of Strugnell’s most unusual claims to fame was to have been
the author of a review longer, and much more valuable, than the book
he was asked to assess. He began to write his review of John
Allegro’s Qumran Cave 4.1 (4Q158-4Q186) in French because he
thought that only a brief notice would be necessary for the Revue
Biblique. As he went through it, however, he realized that more and
more corrections were necessary. Still writing in French he effectively
re-edited all of Allegro’s texts. When Strugnell had finished, the
review was far too long for the Revue Biblique and much more suited
to be an article in the Revue de Qumran. This demanded an
introduction, which he thought should be in better French. The
translation was provided by de Vaux, but without any indication. I
still vividly remember the gales of laughter when the packet
containing the proofs was opened after lunch. Jean Carmignac, editor
of the Revue de Qumran, had made dozens of corrections in de
Vaux’s French and virtually none in Strugnell’s! The review appeared
as “Notes en marge du volume V des ‘Discoveries in the Judaean
Desert of Jordan’” RdeQ 7 (1970) 163-276.
Strugnell was the first editor-in-chief to expand the editorial team
to include Israeli scholars. He involved Elisha Qimron in the
publication of the crucial halakhic work Miqtsat Ma’sasei ha Torah
34
(1984, 1994), and Devorah Dimant in the preliminary edition of 4Q
Second Ezekiel (1988, 1990).
In autumn 1990 John’s health had deteriorated to the point where
he could no longer function as editor-in-chief. He also retired from
Harvard. Despite his precarious health he continued to work on his
manuscripts in Cambridge, MA, aided by Daniel Harrington, SJ, with
whom he published the critical edition of 4QInstruction (Musar
leMevin) (1999). His death on 30 November 2007 came after a week
in hospital for an infection. We extend our deepest sympathy to his
wife and children.
PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL
Ever since the generosity of king Henry IV of France (15891610) to the Basilica of St John Lateran, Rome, the French head of
state has the privilege of being named a Honorary Canon of the papal
cathedral. During Vespers on 20 December 2007 President Nicolas
Sarkozy took possession of his stall in the choir. Subsequently, in the
magnificent Room of Reconciliation of the Lateran Palace, he spoke
on the relationship between church and state. Among other things he
said:
The roots of France are essentially Christian. And France has
made an exceptional contribution to the spread of Christianity.
In terms of spirituality and morality one thinks of the
abundance of universally venerated saints, St Bernard of
Clairvaux, St Louis, St Vincent de Paul, St Bernadette of
Lourdes, St Thérèse of Lisieux, St Jean-Marie Vianney,
Frédéric Ozanam, Charles de Foucauld . . . On the literary and
artistic level one can evoke Coupertin, Péguy, Claudel,
Bernanos, Vierne, Poulenc, Furuflé, Mauriac, Messiaen . . . On
the intellectual level, so dear to Benedict XVI, one must
mention Blaise Pascal, Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Jacques
Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Henri de Lubac, René Girard . .
35
. I cannot avoid drawing attention to the decisive contribution
that France has made to biblical and Christian archaeology, not
only here at Rome, but in the Holy Land, and also to exegesis,
in particular through the l’Ecole biblique et archéologique
française de Jérusalem.
It would be difficult to imagine a more flattering rhetorical climax!
Le Monde AND THE ÉCOLE BIBLIQUE
What The New York Times is to the USA Le Monde is to France.
It is the newspaper of record, renowned for the thoroughness and
courage of its investigations, and authoritative in its editorial
pronouncements. In 2007 it twice gave great prominence to the École
Biblique, a significant indication of the importance that the latter has
acquired in French academic and intellectual life.
On 8 April 2007 Le Monde devoted a full page to an interview of
the Director, Jean-Michel Poffet, by Henri Tincq which appeared
under the heading “La Bible et les fondamentalismes”. In it Father
Poffet tried to provide a non-specialist audience with a healthy
hermeneutic regarding the relationship of the Bible and history. He
argued that in opposition to the extremes (fundamentalism, the
historical positivism of the C19, and the belief that in the Bible all is
symbolical) a middle ground was long ago created by the Fathers of
the Church, notably Origen and Augustine, and subsequently
developed by Father Lagrange with exceptional clarity. Today's
public is alienated from the Church and at the mercy of pseudoscience. It is only within the Church, and particularly in places such
as the École Biblique, that one can find sustained reflection on the
authentic relation of faith and science.
The celebrated philosopher and essayist Régis Debray wrote an
article “L'École biblique de Jérusalem, de la vitrine au symbole” in
Le Monde des Religions n. 23 (Mai-Juin 2007) 20-21, in which he
argued with great finesse that France, a country committed to the
36
complete separation of church and state, should nonetheless
financially support a fundamentally religious institution such as the
École Biblique. He points out first that each time the political
geography of the region changed France strongly reiterated its
responsibility for the well-being of the Catholics in the Holy Land.
Subsidies are often necessary to survival.
Debray's second line of argument is that the École Biblique is
something other than a mere monastery. This vivid realization on his
part was the result of a chance discovery. When the magnificent
walnut presses of the sacristy were being taken apart for removal to
the old winter chapel two revolvers dating from World War I came to
light. Debray happened to be present, and learned that they probably
belonged to Fathers Antonin Jaussen, OP, and Raphaël Savignac, OP,
who would have needed them on their dangerous expeditions out into
the eastern desert and deep into the Hedjaz in the first decade of the
C20, or who would have been issued them when they served France
as intelligence officers in Cairo during World War I. Debray
comments blandly, “L'étude des Écritures mène a tout, y compris à un
certain talent d'observation politique”. The academic distinction
acquired by the École Biblique through its research, he concludes, has
made it “incontestablement une vitrine et un symbole de la présence
française au Moyen-Orient”. And he goes on to insinuate that, if it is
not supported financially by France, perhaps someone else might step
in. “Veut-on la voir demain ne plus parler qu'anglais?”
EXHIBITION AT GENEVA
On 26 April 2007 an exhibition Gaza à la croisée des
civilisations was inaugurated at the Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva,
Switzerland, in the presence of Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of
the Swiss Confederation, and Mahmud Abbas, President of the
Palestinian National Authority, who was accompanied by his Foreign
Minister Ziad Abu Amr. The front-page headline in the next day’s Le
37
Temps of Geneva read “Gaza à Genève: une expo pour donner une
chance à la paix”. The exhibition ran until 7 October 2007.
Centring on the latest archaeological discoveries by the École
Biblique, and the private collection of a Palestinian entrepreneur,
Jawdat Khoudary, the 500 exhibits ranging across 5000 years will be
the nucleus of the Gaza Archaeological Museum planned by
UNESCO for 2016. They revealed the multiple facets of the city.
Ranging from the first Egyptian imports to Greco-Roman
architectural elements, from Cypriot amphorae to Byzantine mosaics,
from Persian statuettes to Ottoman sculpted decorations, the displays
dramatically conveyed the diversity of the civilizations which shaped
the destiny of Gaza, by turns frontier zone, metropolis, and the
melting pot of ethnic interactions; in fact the entire Mediterranean
basin in microcosm. The Director, Jean-Michel Poffet, represented
the École Biblique at the opening ceremony, and Jean-Baptiste
Humbert gave a public lecture, “Les fouilles archéologiques dans la
Bande de Gaza”, the following day.
The exhibition is accompanied by a magnificently illustrated
catalogue. The first volume of 255 pages (Neuchâtel: Chaman, 2007;
ISBN 2-9700435-5-6) deals with the archaeological and historical
context of the objects. The table of contents reads:
Introduction. Mahmud Abbas, “Préface” (9-10); Ziad Abu
Amr, “Préface” (11); Patrice Mugny, “L’âme de Gaza à Genève”
(12-14); Cäsar Menz, “Un patrimoine identitaire à préserver” (1516); Fareed Armaly, “‘Shar(e)d Domaines’ Domaines fragmentaires
en partage” (17-19). Marc-André Haldimann, Marielle MartinianiReber, “Max van Berchem, un archéologue genevois à la découverte
de Gaza en 1894” (21-26); Hamdan Taha, “La gestion du patrimoine
culturel de la Palestine” (27-34); Jean-Baptiste Humbert, Moain
Sadeq, “Les fouilles archéologiques à Gaza” (35-44); Marc-André
Haldimann, en collaboration avec Fareed Armaly, “Entre fouilles et
projet de musée: Jawdat Khoudary, un collectionneur de l’extrême”
(45-50); Christophe Morhange, avec contribution de Danielle
Decrouez, “Les paysages littoraux depuis l’âge du Bronze” (51-58).
Aux origines. Pierre de Miroschedji, “La région de Gaza, des
origines à la fin de l’âge du Bronze” (59-71); Irmgard Hein, “Gaza
38
et l’Égypte au IIe millénaire av. J.-C.” (72-79); Celia J. Bergoffen,
“Le commerce extérieur de Tell al-‘Ajjul et ses importations de
poterie chypriote” (80-86).
Périodes perse et hellénistique. Thomas Bauzou, “Gaza dans
l’Empire perse achéménide (VIe-IVe siècles av. J.-C.)” (87-99);
Jean-Baptiste Humbert, “La route ou les routes de l’encens?” (1004); Pierre-Louis Gatier, “Période hellénistique” (105-118).
Périodes romaine et byzantine. Thomas Bauzou, “Gaza dans
l’Empire romain” (119-36); Matteo Campagnolo, “Le trésor de
Blakhiyah” (137-40); Catherine Saliou, “Gaza dans l’Antiquité
tardive” (141-60); Catherine Saliou, “Le monachisme gaziote” (16170); Michele Piccirillo, “Les mosaïques de la Bande de Gaza” (17188).
Gaza et l’Islam. Moain Sadeq, “Gaza durant la période
islamique” (189-99); Moain Sadeq, “L’architecture musulmane de
Gaza et les arts appliqués” (200-12).
Thématiques générales. Pascale Ballet, Delphine Dixneuf, “Les
amphores et le commerce maritime” (213-17); Matteo Campagnolo,
“Production et trouvailles monétaires” (218-20); Moain Sadeq, “Le
développement urbain de Gaza” (221-31).
THE STORY OF THE ANCIEN COUVENT
In Jerusalem, unless something is brashly modern, there is a
tendency to think that it has always been so. At the École Biblique
this is true for all the buildings with the exception of the Ancien
Couvent. Today the ground floor and the old chapel are the domain of
the archaeologists, whose worktables can be found among masses of
broken pottery awaiting study. Students live on the first floor. But it
was not always so.
The ground floor began life as a slaughterhouse operated by a
certain Moussa Effendi. It was a rectangular single-storey onechamber building, whose west side consisted of four open arches. He
sold it to the Dominicans on 26 December 1884 to the great delight of
39
the Spaffords (one of the founding families of the American Colony).
Their daughter Bertha recorded, “As the prevailing wind in summer is
northwest, we in our home on the [northern] city wall got the full
discomfort of the dreadful stench. It was a happy relief when the
property was bought by the Dominican Fathers, and the
slaughterhouse was moved to the Valley of the Kedron” (Our
Jerusalem, p. 88). Refurbishment was put in hand immediately, and
the smell of blood and rotting meat was quickly replaced by the odour
of sanctity! Fathers Matthieu Lecomte and Jean Maumus with Brother
Thomas Tabin took up residence there on 26 December 1884. It was
blessed as a monastery by the Latin Patriarch, Vincent Bracco, on 10
January 1885.
The building could house only four or five religious at most, too
small for the planned retreat house, which was to be the ministry of its
inhabitants (an École Biblique had not yet been envisaged). With his
customary energy Lecomte immediately started a building program.
He added a long room along the east side, which was topped by a
second storey. The upper floor served as a dormitory for three or four
Dominicans, who used the roof of the original building on the west as
a terrace. It was there, under a tent, that the community hosted the
French Consul for the feast of St Dominic 1886.
The eastern extension was prolonged beyond the original building
to the south, from which a chapel was erected running out to the west.
The chapel was consecrated on 2 March 1886. As more lay brothers
arrived, rooms were added on the south, west and north of the terrace,
transforming the open space into an interior courtyard, which became
the common room of the inhabitants. When this space was roofed is
uncertain.
The construction of the École Building in 1890-91 alleviated the
pressure on space, and the Ancien Couvent became completely
redundant when the main building was completed in 1900. No doubt
it was preserved as testimony to the pioneers, in opposition to the
house built over the cistern beside the great pistachio tree, which was
torn down in 1899-1900. The Ancien Couvent, however, must have
been put to some use, or it would have disintegrated. It is known that
while the convent of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary
40
(White Sisters) was being built at the southern end of Nablus Road,
the sisters rented the Ancien Couvent as a orphanage for little girls
collected from all over the Middle East beginning in 1924. Mme
Marie-Hélène François (now 82), who had been saved as a baby in
Damascus, lived there, and has photos dated to 1925 and 1926
showing her companions and the sisters. The old chapel served as a
dormitory for the orphans, while the sisters lived on the first floor. A
cloister wall separated the garden of the Dominicans from the
territory of the sisters, who used the door to the lane that is today the
entrance to the Garden Tomb when they wished to go to the Old City.
The Franciscan sisters left the Ancien Couvent in 1933. On 30
June 1935 it was rented to the Carmelites from Haifa, who used it as a
residence for clerical students until at least the end of 1937. Their
occupation was one of the reasons why the house council in April
1936 refused an offer by the Bishop of Kaunas, Lithuania, who
wished to buy the Ancien Couvent to house nuns from his country.
In the 1960s the first floor again served as a convent, this time of
Iraqi Dominican Sisters, who worked in the kitchen and the laundry.
Eventually, recognizing that their talents could be better used, in the
1970s they moved out to Bethlehem to run a school. Thereafter the
rooms were rented to students.
From 1958 the ground floor apartment was rented by Hanna Eid,
the steward of the Priory, and his wife Georgette. Their four children
grew up there before going abroad to study. Israeli regulations which
made impossible the return of educated young Palestinians forced the
parents to follow them to the USA in 1988. The apartment
subsequently became the home of Roger and Margot Clermont, who
served the École as volunteers for eighteen months (1988-89). Their
departure, and the end of the academic year, permitted the then
Bursar, Robert Comtois, OP, to clean out the Ancien Couvent
completely and to undertake a thorough renovation of the building
during the summer of 1990.
Running water in the rooms and central heating were provided.
The furnace for the latter was installed in what used to be the original
toilets on the north side of the ground-floor courtyard. The dilapidated
structure on the east side of that courtyard was brought back into use
41
as comfortable offices for the archaeologists, who had long needed
extra space. Their needs had not been fully met by the insertion of a
mezzanine floor in the old chapel in 1987. Two years later an effort to
lower the level of the original sanctuary in order to facilitate
movement led to the rediscovery of a late Roman quarry, which was
cleared and displayed in time for the centenary of the Ecole Biblique
in 1990.
The ground floor apartment again became a convent with the
arrival of three Canadian Sisters of St. Martha on 24 September 1990.
Two were to set up a professional kitchen for the faculty and students
by establishing procedures and standards and training local staff.
Their beneficent influence still remains palpable. When their contract
came to an end in October 1992, the space they vacated was coveted
by the archaeologists, who eventually succeeded in obtaining it.
THE ROOF OF THE BASILICA AND THE TOWER
Phase Two of the restoration of the basilica of St Stephen was
completed during the summer of 2007. The foundations having been
consolidated last year, this time it was the turn of the roof.
The roof of the basilica is double. The inner roof, which is visible
from within the church, consists of seven concrete elongated domes.
When the church was built in 1900 they were covered by a pitched
roof of corrugated iron. For over a century it survived the attacks of
sun, storms and snowfalls, but inevitably parts had begun to rust, and
leaks endangered the domes below. The decision was taken to replace
it completely. Fortunately a rain free summer could be guaranteed.
The local Arab contractor provided access to the roof for his men
by building a wooden ramp from the garden on the east, which passed
over the roof of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. When the corrugated
iron was stripped off, a very minimalist timber framework came to
light. Another revelation was the vast amount of pigeon guano that
had accumulated between the two roofs. After it had been removed,
necessary minor repairs were made to the domes. A much more solid
42
timber framework was installed, and covered completely with planks,
on which were laid strips of insulating and waterproof material. It was
protected from the elements by sheets of zinc carefully and
systematically overlapped and ridged. In November the new roof was
tested by heavy rain and a small earthquake. It emerged with full
marks.
While workers were available it was decided to waterproof the
top of the tower where leakages were endangering the metalwork
below. Advantage was taken of the scaffolding they had set up to
bring Brother Tarcisio Zanette, OP, from Bologna, Italy, to repair the
automatic bell-striking machine that he had installed in the summer of
2000. With great ingenuity he was able to maufacture a substitute for
a broken piece of metal, and to reprogram the electronics, so that
Vespers now starts at 7.30 pm rather than five minutes earlier.
LIBRARY
Without volunteers the Library simply could not function, and
our gratitude goes out to all who have made a contribution. During
the summer of 2007 four Polish Dominicans — Jakub Bluj, Krzysztof
Michałowski, Andrzej Nakonieczny, and Tomasz Rojek — checked
the shelving of all the books, prepared a list of gaps in the collection,
and helped with the cataloguing. From February to May 2007, and for
several weeks in December, Amy Phillips, a librarian from the
Harvard University Library, attempted to put some order into our map
collection. During the same period Annie Baudouin as usual did
valiant work on the catalogue.
Volunteers who stay for longer periods are an important element
of continuity. We are fortunate that Agnès Marcaud has extended her
stay until the end of March 2008. Tom Powers still gives a hand,
although he now has the additional responsibility of the garden.
Élisabeth Rio, who began in September 2007, will be with us for a
year. It is planned that Sr Rosario of the Congregation of the Holy
43
Cross of Jerusalem, who joined the staff at the same time, will stay
for a number of years.
THE FIRST DOMINICANS IN JERUSALEM
The Crusaders surrendered Jerusalem to Saladin in October 1187,
and thereafter were confined to their castles on the Mediterranean
coast with Acre as their only city. Its port was their lifeline to Europe
until it fell to the Mamluks in May 1291. There must have been a
Dominican presence in this area, because the province of the Holy
Land was established in 1227, and that presupposed the existence of
two or three priories.
The first reference to a Dominican based permanently in
Jerusalem appears in an account of the peaceful occupation of
Jerusalem by Frederick II (1194-1250) on 17 March 1229:
And so the Christian army entered . . . the holy city of
Jerusalem, the patriarch with the suffragan bishops . . .
Master Walter, a brother of the Order of Preachers, a devout,
prudent and discreet man, who had undertaken from the
Lord Pope the duty of preaching in the army of Christ, a role
that he had by then discharged for a long time, celebrated the
divine office in the suburban churches, thereby arousing the
devotion of a great number of the faithful (Flores
Historiarum, anno 1229).
Master Walter evidently arrived in Jerusalem as a chaplain with the
imperial army, and once there turned to pastoral work. Thus he must
have been resident in the city. The sources indicate that he was joined
by other friars. In 1237 the Provincial of the Holy Land, Bro. Philip,
wrote from Jerusalem to Pope Gregory IX regarding ecclesiastical
affairs in the Orient. Among other things he recorded that Blessed
Jordan of Saxony, the immediate successor of St. Dominic as Master
44
of the Order, had been drowned off Acre on 13 February 1237. He
had been on visitation to the new province.
The missionary Ricoldus of Montecroce, OP (1243-1320), visited
Jerusalem between 1288 and 1289, and was shown the ruins of the
Dominican priory. Alas the location he gives (between the Dome of
the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque!) is impossible. If he could see the
garden and was walking from Mount Sion towards the Kidron valley,
the site must have been close to the Hinnom valley. In 1480 Felix
Fabri, OP (1441-1502), placed the Dominican garden at Haceldama,
on the south side of the Hinnom, and dreamt of building a priory
there. It is rather extraordinary that Domincans should have settled in
the countryside rather than within the walled city.
The vulnerability of their priory suggests that the Dominicans
would have died with so many others, when the Khwarizmians, a
Mongol tribe, sacked Jerusalem in 1244. The friars returned,
however, in the C14 under circumstances that reek of intrigue. In
1309 the Mamluk sultan al-Nazir Muhammad granted the Franciscans
the exclusive right to live in the Holy Sepulchre, but in 1323 James II
of Aragon had that firman recinded in favour of twelve Catalan
Dominicans. They left the church after a year, complaining of the
intolerable living conditions. Did they then reside elsewhere and go in
to the Holy Sepulchre each day? In 1332-3 Robert of Anjou, king of
Naples and Jerusalem, paid the sultan 20,000 gold ducats to have the
Franciscans returned to what they had lost. They were given a
monastery on Mount Sion with the right to officiate in the Holy
Sepulchre, in the cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and in the Tomb
of the Virgin at Gethsemane. This was the beginning of the Custody
of the Holy Land, which the Franciscans have valiantly maintained
since 1335.
45
THE FIRST VISIT OF THE ÉCOLE BIBLIQUE TO SINAI
Alessandro Falcetta (2000-2) recently sent us the following
portion of a letter from James Rendel Harris (then University lecturer
in Paleography at Cambridge University) to his wife, Helen Harris.
Being a Quaker he uses ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ to address her! It is now
among his papers at the University of Birmingham.
Convent of St. Catherine
Feb 23/93
Sweetest Best,
I walked down the Wady esh-Shekyl this afternoon for
an hour or so, to meet a caravan which was said to contain
letters; and to my joy, got thy bright letter and enclosures
dated Feb 23 [error for 13 Feb]; so we are only ten days
apart on earth and not one minute in the spirit.
We are now three sets of people here; a large party of
Dominican monks from the Convent of St. Stephen at
Jerusalem, and the new party (a couple of Austrians who
seem to be shooting, more than any other idea). The
Dominicans are a learned set, and it is astonishing how well
they are posted in what goes on. Fancy talking with a
Belgian on Mount Sinai who had read Codex Bezae! It
seems that the order of St. Dominic are sending men to
Jerusalem for two years study. What a wise thing. They
will soon rival the Benedictines. …
Today’s postal delivery to major cities in the Middle East cannot
compete in speed and efficiency with the C19 service to remote desert
monasteries in the ‘decadent’ Ottoman Empire! Father Lagrange did
visit St. Catherine’s in 1893, and was reproached for not having
written anything about it. Thus when he made a second visit in 1896
he published his diary in the Revue Biblique 1896-97. There are
46
occasional references to his first visit, but none concern Englishmen
met along the way. The identity of the ‘Belgian’ has not been
established. Was Rendel Harris led astray by a regional French
accent?
RATISBONNE FACULTY STUDY DAY
On 1 March 2007 the École Biblique hosted a study day for the
faculty of the Studium Theologicum Salesianum ‘Ss Peter and Paul’,
which the constraints on movement on the West Bank imposed by the
Israelis forced to move from Cremisan in the hills west of Bethlehem
to Ratisbonne Monastery in West Jerusalem in October 2004.
The day began with a lecture by Father Michael McGarry,
Rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, on a text produced by the
Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish People and their Sacred
Scriptures in the Christian Bible. After the coffee break Jean-Michel
Poffet, OP, presented the École Biblique in Italian. A postprandial
visit to the Library by Pawel Trzopek, OP, was followed by a lecture
on “The Importance of the Knowledge of Judaism” by Étienne
Nodet, OP.
ENGLISH-SPEAKING DOMINICAN STUDENTS
In July 2003 the École Biblique organized a two-week program
to introduce the École Biblique and professional biblical studies to
young Dominicans still in formation. The participants came from
France, Italy and Poland, and the common language was French. The
long-term objective was to meet the Order’s need for biblical scholars
and the École Biblique’s need for professors. The enthusiasm of the
participants made the experiment a great success, and a decision was
taken to organize similar sessions for other linguistic groups.
47
With Olivier-Thomas Venard as coordinator invitations were sent
to the English-speaking provinces of the Order in the course of the
academic year 2006-7. In response ten young men gathered at the
École Biblique in the first two weeks of June 2007. They represented
Australia (1), Canada (1), Croatia (1), India (2), Ireland (1), United
Kingdom (1), and USA (3). The intense session was a mixture of
lectures, archaeological visits and meetings.
The first lecture was given by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “A
Life with the Scriptures in Jerusalem”. It was followed by Justin
Taylor, SM, “Going on living as a scholar and a priest in the Holy
Land throughout dramatic times”; Gregory Tatum, “Trinitarian
Spirituality in the NT”; Francolino Gonçalves, “In Quest of the
Original Meaning of OT Texts”; Justin Taylor & Olivier-Thomas
Venard, “Presentation and Discussion of the Bible Project”; Émile
Puech, “An Introduction to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls”; and
Jean-Baptiste Humbert, “Archaeology at the École Biblique”.
In order to alert the participants to the variety of academic
activities available in Jerusalem outside the École Biblique they had
meetings with David Neuhaus, SJ, who is a convert from Judaism, a
doctoral student at the Hebrew University, and a professor at the
Seminary of the Latin Patriarchate in Bet Jala near Bethlehem, and
with David Burrell, CSC, who has just retired as a professor of
philosophy and theology at the University of Notre Dame, USA. The
latter provided the opportunity to visit the Tantur Ecumenical Center.
Visits to the major archaeological sites in Jerusalem were guided
by a variety of faculty members. The participants also went further
afield. Day-trips to Bethlehem (Olivier-Thomas Venard & Gregory
Tatum) and the Dead Sea area (Marcel Sigrist) were intermingled
with longer three-day trips to the Southern Negev (Marcel Sigrist &
Christian Eeckhout) and to Galilee (Etienne Nodet & Christian
Eeckhout).
48
EMINENT VISITORS
The École Biblique was honoured this year by the visit of two
important curial cardinals. On 2 November 2007 we received
Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity. He came in the context of a series of
unofficial visits to Catholic graduate schools in Israel and the
Occupied Territories. In response to a speech of welcome by Justin
Taylor, SM, deputizing for the Director, he gave a survey of the
present state of relations between the Catholic Church and other
churches and ecclesial communions and with the Jewish people.
On 2 December 2007 Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran came at the
invitation of the Prior, Guy Tardivy, OP. They have been friends
since their days together in Bordeaux. He was accompanied by Mgr
Antonio Franco, Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine, and
Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Cyprus. The cardinal had been
Secretary of State for Relations with States from 1990 to 2003, and in
this capacity he had visited the École Biblique in 1998. It was during
his term of office that the Vatican signed the Fundamental Agreement
recognizing the State of Israel, and during his visit the cardinal spoke
of his disappointment and displeasure at the fact that Israel has failed
to follow through on what it had promised to do for the Catholic
religious communities that fall under its jurisdiction. Their traditional
rights and privileges are recognized de facto to some extent, but it had
been agreed that such recognition would henceforth be total and de
jure. At present we live in a legal limbo.
On being created cardinal in 2003 Jean-Louis Tauran was made
Archivist of the Secret Archives and Librarian of the Holy Roman
Church. In September 2007 he also became President of the Council
for Interreligious Dialogue, which gives him responsibility for the
church’s relations with Islam. In a short talk he gave particular
importance to the letter addressed to the Pope and other Christian
leaders by 138 Muslim religious leaders. This, he stressed, was a
unique initiative because its authors were both Sunnis and Shiites,
49
and the tone of the letter was entirely irenic. In order to avoid the
association of religion with violence, the cardinal suggested, that we
preach incessantly the three convictions articulated in the letter: God
is One. He loves us and we should love him. We should love our
neighbour. The cardinal also stressed the importance of the visit of
King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia to the Pope on 6 November 2007.
This would have been inconceivable just a few years ago, and
augured a fruitful dialogue of culture and spirituality between the
Catholic Church and Islam.
PUBLIC LECTURES
Saturday Morning Lectures organized by the École Biblique:
Michel Gourgues, OP, “‘Comme une source d’eau’. L’Esprit
Saint dans l’évangile de Jean” (3 March 2007); Olivier-Thomas
Venard, OP, “L’horreur et la splendeur: regards exégètiques sur la
croix de Jésus” (31 March); Michel Gourgues, OP, “‘Neuf fois
heureux’: relire aujourd’hui les béatitudes de l’Évangile de St
Matthieu” (28 April and repeated by popular demand on 1 May);
Maurice Gilbert, S.J., “Les antiennes ‘O’” (8 December 2007).
Lectures organized by les Centres Culturels du Consulat Général de
France à Jérusalem and the École Biblique:
Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, “Ramleh. Une fondation islamique du
8ème siècle” (29 January 2007); Olivier-Thomas Venard, OP, “Le
message actuel du Père Marcel Dubois, OP, à partir de son livre
Nostalgie d’Israël” (19 February); Jean-Baptiste Humbert, OP, “Un
épisode omeyyade en Jordanie. La fouille de al-Fudayn-Mafraq” (12
March); Philippe Andrieux, “Aux origines de la métallurgie: De la
reconstitution expérimentale des ateliers à la lecture des vestiges
archéologiques” (27 March); Daniel Sibony, “Les conflits fraternels”
(23 April); Amjad Shihab, “La diplomatie palestinienne:
perspectives d’une solution au conflit” (11 June).
50
Lectures organized by the École Biblique:
Israel Finkelstein, “Megiddo: Twelve Years and Two Reports
Later” (13 February 2007); Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, "Le
dictionnaire biblique hébreu-latin-ancien français de l'Abbaye de
Ramsey (XIIIe s.)" (22 May 2007); Simon Mimouni, "Les origines
du christianisme: nouveaux paradigmes ou paradigmes paradoxaux?"
(10 December 2007).
Lecture organized by the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy
Land and the Justice and Peace Commission of Jerusalem:
Jean Vanier, “Becoming Human” (18 April 2007).
STUDENTS
During the academic year 2006-7 the École Biblique received 42
students from 16 countries. The break down by nationalities is: Benin
1; Brasil 1; Canada 1; Colombia 1; France 20; Germany 1; Ireland 1;
Italy 2; India 1; Madagascar 1; Norway 1; Peru 1; Poland 4; Rwanda
1; United States 3; Vietnam 2.
In the first semester of the academic year 2007-8 the École
Biblique has 23 students from 10 countries, namely, Benin 2; Canada
1; France 5; Germany 1; Italy 2; Poland 4; Romania 1; Spain 1; USA
4; Vietnam 2.
The academic council approved the following mémoires:
• on 26 January 2007: Claire Balandier, La Transjordanie et le
Nord du Sinaï dans la politique défensive des souverains achéménides
et lagides (de c. 538 à c. 198 av. J.-C.). Archéologie et histoire
(Bien).
• on 9 March 2007: Paul-Marie Chango, OP, Liens entre
l’histoire de Joseph et la sagesse des Proverbes: Un nouvel examen
de la question (Bien).
• on 30 March 2007: Deborah Sebag, L’architecture en terre du
Levant sud au Bronze ancien (Bien).
51
• on 19 October 2007: Sylvain Badibanga Kabemba, SDP,
Rapports entre le TM, Th, et la LXX de Daniel 7; Wiliam Vásquez
Alarcon, OP, El problema literario de la pericopa de la mujer
sorprendida in adulterio: Analisis de los manuscritos griegos y de la
diversas versiones del N.T. y vision general de la patristica y la
literatura apocrifa en relation con Jn 7,53-8,11 (Assez bien).
• on 22 November 2007: Mathias Nygaard, Universalism in
Paul: An Examination of Galatians 1 and 2, Corinthians and Romans
(Assez bien); Elisabeth Savoie, Étude sur le Psaume 78. Le chant du
Témoin (Bien); Kevin Trehuedic, Les insignes du pouvoir
hellénistiques et les Juifs des Maccabées à Hérode le Grand (Assez
bien).
• on 21 December 2007: Marc Filiol de Raimond, Mc 10,46-52:
Sommet d’une pedagogie de la Foi. Une péricope récapulative
(Bien); Joseph Nguyen Ngoc Dung, De l’appel à l’existence à
l’appel à l’alliance. Même appel au salut. Une lecture sotériologique
de Gn 1-11.
DOCTORAL PROGRAM
On the approval of his mémoire, Marta, Marta! Studio Narrativo
du Luca 10,38-42 (19 October 2007) and of his Lectio Coram, “Le
triangle dramatique: Les personnages secondaires dans le ‘grand
voyage’ de Luc” (22 November 2007) Matteo Crimella was
admitted to the doctoral program.
NEWS OF STUDENTS AND FRIENDS
In September 2006 José Vidigal, CSsR (1966-67) published a
new translation of the Bible in Portugese Bíblia Sagrada de
Aparecida (Brasil: Casa Editora Santuário de Aparecida). It proved to
be an extraordinary best-seller. In the first month alone 50,000 copies
52
were bought. Obviously its simple and precise language met a real
need. — On 10 November 2006 Teresa Okure, SHCJ (1981-83;
CBA visiting prof. 1998-99) delivered the Annual Pope Paul VI
Memorial Lecture organised by CAFOD, England, at the Emmanuel
Conference Centre in London. — On 8 December 2006 JeanSébastien Rey (2003-4) was awarded the note ‘très honorable avec
les félicitations du jury’ for the successful defense of his thesis,
4QInstruction: sagesse et eschatologie, which was presented to the
Faculty of Catholic Theology of the Université Marc Bloch,
Strasbourg, and to the Faculty of Theology of the Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He and his wife Maryla had a second
daughter, Clémence, on 16 April 2007. — Eugen Pentiuc (1984-86)
is now Chair of the Religious Studies Department at the Hellenic
College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in
Brookline, Mass. USA, where he teaches OT and Hebrew. — Kevin
McCaffrey (Librarian 1994-2004) had an exhibition of his paintings
“Reasons for Seeing” at the Jadite Galleries in New York City (2-23
February 2007). — On 3 February 2007 Christophe Lemardelé
(2002-3) received the note ‘très honorable’ for the successful defence
of his thesis, Être nazir: du guerrier yahwiste au voeu cultuel du
judaïsme ancien, at l'École Pratique des Hautes Études (section
sciences religieuses), Paris. Hedwige Rouillard-Bonraisin (1977-79)
directed the dissertation. — On 27 March Javier Velasco Yeregui
(1998-99; Director of the Casa Santiago 2006-) received the note
magna cum laude for the successful defence of his thesis, Memoria y
presencia divina. Espacio sagrado en el código de la alianza (Ex
20,23-26), at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical Studies and
Archaeology in Jerusalem. José Loza Vera, OP, was the second
reader. — The Catholic Theological Faculty of Kinshasa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, as part of its Golden Jubilee celebrations on
20 April 2007, offered a doctorate honoris causa to Claude Geffré,
OP (Director 1996-99). Just two days before the ceremony, after a six
months delay, the Vatican Congregation of Catholic Education
interposed its veto without giving any reasons. The method and the
timing could hardly have been more wounding or insulting. — On 14
May 2007 Terrence Prendergast, SJ (CBA visiting prof. 1994-95),
53
hitherto Archbishop of Halifax, Canada, was named Archbishop of
Ottawa in succession to Marcel Gervais (1960-61) who had reached
the age of retirement. He was installed on 26 June, and received the
pallium from Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter’s, Rome, three days
later. — On the occasion of his 70th birthday Bernardo Boschi, OP
(1964-65) was presented with a Festschrift, L’armonia della scrittura.
Saggi in onore di padre Bernardo Boschi, OP (ed. W. Binni;
Bologna: ESD, 2007), by Joseph Agius, OP (1969-70), Rector of the
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas (Angelicum), Rome, and
Maurizio Marcheselli (1989-90) on 24 May 2007 in Bologna. — On 1
June 2007 in the presence of the Deputy Mayor a street in the center
of Nice, France, behind the Église du Vœu, was named for “Père
Marie-Joseph Stève, dominicain, archéologue” (1945-46; prof.
1946-50). — On 8 June 2007 in New York Aicha Rahmouni (199799) and her husband Pablo Sanz (2001-2) announced the birth of
their first child, a daughter Sara. — After his doctorate in OT at the
University of Münster (1995) Martin Kleer, MSC (1989-90) worked
for ten years in adult education. Now he is based in a small parish in
Balduinstein, Germany, while he completes his Habilitationsschrift on
“Paranesis in Ephesians”. — At the end of the academic year 2006-7
Jean-Marie Van Cangh, OP (1968-72) retired from his post as
professor of Sacred Scripture in the University of Louvain-la-Neuve,
Belgium. —The next section (‘Recent Books’) contains the full title
of the just published version of the thesis which Raphaëlle Ziadé
(1992-93) successfully defended at the Université de Paris IV–
Sorbonne in 2002. Now married to Philippe Fournié, with whom she
has had two children, Térence (1999) and Marguerite (2003), she is
preparing the critical edition of the two authentic homilies on the
Maccabees by John Chrysostom. — Peter Dubovský, SJ (1997-98)
has published his 2005 Harvard dissertation (see ‘Recent Books’), and
is now teaching Old Testament and Hebrew in the Theological
Faculty of Trnava University in Slovakia. — Guillaume Bady (199798) married Yasmine Ech-Chael on 30 June 2007 in Lyon. After
successfully defending his thesis on Le commentaire inédit sur les
Proverbes attribué à Jean Chrysostome in January 2003, he was
recruited into the CNRS as a researcher in the team ‘Sources
54
chrétiennes’ (UMR 5189 = HiSoMA), which meant that he had to
relocate to Lyon. Every two years he teaches a semester course on the
LXX at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is also webmaster for the
site www.migne.fr, and coordinates “Nos Racines” a distance
learning course on patristics. — At the end of the academic year
2006-7, after 30 years of service to the Gregorian University, Rome,
Charles Conroy, MSC (1970-71 and 1996-97) retired as professor of
Old Testament, and henceforward will be resident in his hometown,
Cork, Ireland. — In June 2007 Trinity College, Dublin, hosted a
colloquium in honour of its emeritus professor of theology Sean
Freyne (1968-69). For the academic year 2007-8 he will be visiting
professor of New Testament in the Divinity School, Harvard
University, USA. — Michael Daise (1998-99) has been promoted
Associate Professor and granted tenure at the College of William and
Mary, Williamsburg, MD, USA. In addition he won an Alumni
Fellowship Award for his contributions to students. — On 11 July
Roger Houngbédji, OP (2005-6) was elected Prior of the Regional
Vicariate of West Africa. — The priestly ordination of Anne-Sophie
Hahn (2000-1) at Plobsheim, France, on 16 September 2007, took
place in circumstances which show that the ecumenical movement is
still alive and well, at least among the Protestant churches in AlsaceMoselle. She and two companions from the Reformed Church of
France and three candidates from the Lutheran Church were ordained
in the same ceremony; they are free to celebrate the liturgy in each
other’s parishes. On 23 September Anne-Sophie was formally
installed as pastor at Weyer. — Elisabeth Goupil (coopérante 20046) married Paul Lamprière on 29 September 2007 in Carquefou,
France. — On 20 October 2007 Kyle Smith (2003-4) married
Maggie Fost, the art director and a graphic designer for an
independent rock label called Merge Records, in the Sarah P. Duke
Gardens on the campus of Duke University, Durham, NC. Having
passed his comprehensive exams, he is in the process of writing the
formal proposal for his dissertation which will be on notions of
covenant in late ancient Syriac asceticism. — On 24 October 2007
Anthony Dinh M. Tien, OP (2006-) successfully defended his
doctoral thesis, The Will of God and Human Responses in the Fourth
55
Gospel, at the Pontifical University of St Thomas (Angelicum),
Rome. — To honour his 70th birthday Joan M. Vernet, SDB (197475) was presented with a Festschrift, Tuo Padre ed io ti cercavamo, at
the ceremony inaugurating the academic year of the Studium
Theologicum Salesianum ‘Ss. Peter and Paul’, which took place in the
Auditorium of Terra Sancta College, Jerusalem, on 29 October 2007.
— At the autumn 2007 exam session of the Pontifical Biblical
Commission, Rome, Andrzej Wysocki, OP (2006–) was awarded the
BSS. — Raúl Maraví, O. Carm. (2002-3) has been appointed
General Councillor for the Americas, and in November 2007, moved
from Lima, Peru, to the General Curia of the Carmelite Order in
Rome. — On 15 November 2007 the University of Fribourg awarded
Max Küchler (1973-74) the Prix Liechtenstein 2007 for his
guidebook to Jerusalem (see below Recent Books). Endowed by
Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein in 1983, this biennial prize
carries a sum of FS 10,000. — On his retirement as Dean of the
Theological Faculty of the Institut Catholique de Toulouse at the end
of the academic year 2006-7 Jean-Pierre Lémonon (1975-76)
became a parish priest in his home diocese, Valence, where with one
of his past students he is responsible for 12 villages. He collaborates
actively with the periodical Biblia, and is co-editor of the collection
'Commentaires Bibliques' (Paris: Cerf), for which he has completed a
commentary on Galatians. — Michael Savage, OP (1993-94) has
decided to resign from the Order and the priesthood. — At the end of
October Vincent Sénéchal (2006-7) defended his brilliant thesis,
L’affaire du veau (Dt 9,7-10,11). De l’apport de ce récit à la
présentation de la justice divine dans le Deutéronome, which was
presented to the Institut Catholique, Paris, and the Faculty of
Theology of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. A member
of the Missions Etrangères de Paris, his mission commission mass
was celebrated on 4 November 2007, and he is now in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia. — On returning to his diocese of Toulon, France, Joseph
Nguyen Ngoc Dung (2004-7) was given charge of a parish and at the
same time appointed professor of Sacred Scripture at the Major
Seminary. One wonders if he will have time to sleep and eat! — Pol
Vonck, MAfr (1975-76) first returned to St Anne’s as the one
56
responsible for the biblical and archaeological section of the White
Fathers’ renewal program (1991-97). He has now completed a second
term in the same job (2004-7), and will return to Tanzania, where he
had previously served between his Jerusalem appointments. —
Guillaume Charloux (2001-2) has won a post in the Laboratoire des
Études Sémitiques Anciennes of the CNRS.
RECENT BOOKS BY PAST STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
José Enrique Aguilar Chiu (1996-97), Franco Manzi (199293), et alii (eds), “Il verbo di Dio è vivo”. Studi sul Nuovo Testamento
in onore del Cardinale Albert Vanhoye, S.I. (AnBib 165; Rome:
Biblical Institute Press, 2007). — José Enrique Aguilar Chiu, 1 Cor
12-14 Literary Structure and Theology (AnBib 166; Roma: Biblical
Institute Press, 2007). — Chrystian Boyer (2003-4), Jésus contre le
temple? Analyse historico-critique des textes (Héritage et projet, 68;
Montréal: Fides, 2005). — Raúl Duarte Castillo (1968-69),
“Génesis” in José Loza Vera y Raúl Duarte Castillo, Introducción al
Pentateuco. Génesis (Biblioteca Bíblica Básica 3; Estella: Editorial
Verbo Divino, 2007). — Michael Daise (1998-99), Feasts in
John: Jewish Festivals and Jesus’ ‘Hour’ in the Fourth Gospel
(WUNT 2.229; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007). — Peter
Dubovský, SJ (1997-98), Hezekiah and the Assyrian Spies.
Reconstruction of the Neo-Assyrian Intelligence Services and Its
Significance for 2 Kings 18-19 (Biblica et Orientalia 49; Rome:
Biblical Institute Press, 2007). — Jean-Baptiste Edart (1999-2001)
with I. Himbaza and A. Schenker (1966-67), Clarifications sur
l’homosexualité dans la Bible (Lire la Bible 147; Paris: Cerf, 2007).
— Michel Gourgues, OP (1973-74; CBA prof. 1984-85; 2006-7),
Matthieu, Marc et Luc: Trois livres, un évangile. Repères pour la
lecture (Lectures bibliques 48; Montréal: Médiaspaul, 2007). —
César Augusto Franco Martínez (1978-79) and José Miguel García
Pérez, Pasión de Jesús segun san Mateo y decenso a los infernos
(Studia Semitica Novi Testamenti 15; Madrid: Ediciones
57
Encuentro/Fundación San Justino, 2007). — Odile Flichy (2002-3;
visiting prof. 2006-7), La figure de Paul dans les Actes des Apôtres.
Un phénomène de réception de la tradition paulinienne à la fin du Ier
siècle (LD 214; Paris: Cerf, 2007). — Max Küchler (1973-74),
Jerusalem. Ein Handbuch und Studienreiseführer zur Heiligen Stadt
(Orte und Landschaften der Bibel IV,2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht, 2007). — Bentley Layton (prof. 1971-76), Coptic in 20
Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and
Vocabulary (Leuven: University Press, 2006). — André Lemaire
(1968-69), The Birth of Monotheism. The Rise and Disappearance of
Yahwism (Washington DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2007). —
Jean-Pierre Lémonon (1975-76), Ponce Pilate (Paris: L'Atelier,
2007). — Luca Mazzinghi (1988-89), Histoire d’Israël, des origines
à la période romaine (Écritures 11; Bruxelles: Lumen Vitae/
Montréal: Novalis, 2007). — Simon Mimouni (1987-88) et Pierre
Maraval, Le Christianisme des origines à Constantin (Nouvelle Clio;
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2006). — idem et Judith
Olszowy-Schlanger (eds), Les revues scientifiques d'études juives,
passé et avenir : à l'occasion du 120e anniversaire de La revue des
études juives (Leuven: Peeters, 2006). — idem, La circoncision
dans la monde judéen aux époques greque et romaine. Histoire d’un
conflit interne au judaïsme (Leuven: Peeters, 2007). — William S.
Morrow (CBA Visiting Prof. 2005-6), Protest against God. The
Eclipse of a Biblical Tradition (Hebrew Bible Monographs 4;
Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006). — Aicha Rahmouni
(1997-99), Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts (HdO 93;
Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008). — Jordi Sánchez Bosch (1963-64),
Maestro de los pueblos. Una theologíade Pable, el apóstel (Estella:
Verbo Divino, 2007). — Jacques Vermeylen (1970-71), Jérusalem,
centre du monde. Développements et contestations d’une tradition
biblique (LD 217; Paris: Cerf, 2007). — Benedict T. Viviano, OP
(1971-72; prof. 1984-95), Matthew and His World. The Gospel of the
Open Jewish Christians. Studies in Biblical Theology (NTOA 61;
Fribourg: Academic Press/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
2007). — Raphaëlle Ziadé (1992-93), Les martyrs Maccabées: de
l’histoire juive au culte chrétien. Les homélies de Grégoire de
58
Nazianze et de Jean Chrysostome (SuppVC 80; Leiden/Boston: Brill,
2007).
REQUIESCANT IN PACE
Robert Comtois, OP (Financial Manager 1987-92), who died in
Montréal, Canada, on 9 December 2006 at the age of 84. — Adolfo
Galindo Quevedo (1995-96) of the diocese of La Dorada-Guaduas,
Colombia, who died in Guarinocito Caldas at the end of August 2006,
at the age of 66. — Pierre Cazeaux (1976-77), who died at Tarbes,
France, on 8 December 2006, at the age of 78. — Mgr Pierre
Duprey, MAfr (1968-69), who died in Vatican City, on 13 May
2007, at the age of 85. As Secretary of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity he was instrumental in sending a number
of Romanian Orthodox priests to study at the École Biblique. —
Marcel Jacques Dubois, OP (prof. 1968-77), who died on 14 June
2007 in Jerusalem, after a long illness, at the age of 87. He came to
Israel in 1962 to join Isaiah House, which Bruno Hussar, OP, and
Jacques Fontaine, OP, had founded two years earlier in order to
establish a Catholic intellectual presence in Israel. His insertion into
Israeli life took place via his position as professor of medieval
philosophy (and later head of department) at the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem. Among many Jewish honours he was awarded the Israel
Prize, and was made a freeman of Jerusalem. He was buried in the
property of the Sisters of Bethlehem at Bet Gimal. — Blandine
Fricker, wife of Denis Fricker (1998-99), who died in Strasbourg,
France, on 12 September 2007, at the age of 42 after a long battle
with cancer. — Michael Maher, MSC (1961-62), who died in
Dublin, Ireland, on 1 November 2007 of a massive heart attack at the
age of 74. — John Strugnell who died in Boston, MA, on 30
November 2007 of a severe infection at the age of 77 (see above). —
Jean Bottéro (visiting prof. March 1986) who died at Gif-sur-Yvette,
France, on 15 December 2007 at the age of 93. While in training as a
Dominican at the Priory of St. Maximin in southern France he was
59
selected for special tuition by Marie-Joseph Lagrange, who lived
there in retirement 1935-38, with a view to an eventual appointment
to the École Biblique. After ordination he left the Order (1950), but
maintained his academic interests in the Bible and Mesopotamia,
working first for the CNRS (1947-58) and then as a professor (chair
of Assyriology) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. A
great scholar he was also a marvellous communicator with a
developed sense of humour. These qualities came together in his La
plus vieille cuisine du monde (Paris: Audibert, 2002 = The Oldest
Cuisine in the World, University of Chicago Press, 2004). In it he
deciphered three cuneiform tablets from the Yale Babylonian
Collection, which together contain 35 recipes for meat soup, small
birds in pastry wrappings, and vegetables. Sometimes one of these
dishes appeared on his table when he entertained colleagues!
60
COMMUNICATIONS
The postal address (POB 19053, Jerusalem 91190), and the
phone and fax numbers of the École Biblique remain the same,
namely (+972-2) 626-4468 and (+972-2) 628-2567 respectively. The
following are the extension numbers of the faculty and permanent
community together with their email addresses. The extension
number can be entered as soon as the voice is heard.
Archaeology
Devillers, L.
Director
Eeckhout, Ch.
Gonçalves, F.
Humbert, J.-B.
Leroy, M.
Librarian
Modras, K.
Murphy-O'Connor, J.
Nodet, É.
Prior
Poffet, J.-M.
Puech, É.
Rico, C.
Sigrist, M.
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255
238
256
247
259
253
222
230 or 241
246
242
231
237
109
Sonek, K.
Tardivy, G.
Tarragon, J.-M. de
Tatum, G.
Taylor, J.
Trzopek, P.
Venard, O.-T.
243
231
244
249
251
245
250
233
[email protected]
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The address of the École Biblique Web Site is: http://www.ebaf.edu
Editor: Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, OP

Jerusalem Letter 2007b - École biblique et archéologique française

Transcription

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