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27-506: The school was founded in 1890 under the name École pratique d’études bibliques by Marie-Joseph Lagrange , a Dominican priest . Its studies were officially sanctioned by Pope Leo XIII in his papal encyclical Providentissimus Deus in 1893. The election of Pope Pius X in 1903 saw the beginning of a conservative reaction against perceived "Modernists" inside the Catholic Church . Père Lagrange, like other scholars involved in

54-699: A Doctorate in 1878; and he was admitted to practice. In 1878 he entered the Dominican seminary at Issy-les-Moulineaux , and from there went to the novitiate at St Maximin in Toulouse, where he received the habit and was given the name Brother Marie-Joseph. In 1880, the Dominicans were expelled from France. Lagrange went to the Spanish Dominican house of St. Stephen in Salamanca. He was ordained

81-664: A caution about two of his methodological principles. In 1908 he petitioned the Master General for permission to withdraw from Scripture studies. Fr. Cormier, the General at the time, refused and told him to focus instead on the New Testament. In 1912 Lagrange was given an order of silence for the Revue Biblique to cease publication and to return to France. The École itself was closed for a year, and then Lagrange

108-467: A piece of literature; a second, revised version, was published in 1998. The school is part of the Dominican St. Stephen's Priory, French: "Couvent de Saint-Étienne". Most of the teachers of the École Biblique are Dominican friars, and all members of the Dominican priory are involved in the work of the École. The priory is centred around the modern Basilica of St Stephen (Saint-Étienne) built over

135-480: A priest at Zamora in 1883. Lagrange was a professor of Church history and Holy Scripture when he was sent to Vienna to improve his knowledge of Oriental languages: Assyrian, Egyptian, Arabic, and Hebrew. He also studied Rabbinical literature. In February 1889, he was sent to Jerusalem, where in November 1890 he opened the École Pratique d’Études Bibliques (Practical School of Biblical Studies). In 1892, he founded

162-639: A small group of young scholars of Hebrew to work on them. These scholars, some of whom worked on their allotted scrolls for decades, included Józef Milik , John Marco Allegro and John Strugnell . From 1961 to 1963 he worked with Kathleen Kenyon in excavations in Jerusalem. De Vaux chose not to publish a definitive archaeological report for his work at Qumran despite worldwide interest, though he left behind him copious notes, which have been synthesized and published by Jean-Baptiste Humbert in 1994, in 2003 and in 2016. Beside contributing many articles for

189-609: The Palestine Archaeological Museum , or what came to be known as the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. De Vaux was born in Paris in 1903, entered the priesthood in 1929 and became a Dominican later the same year. From 1934 till his death in 1971 he lived in Jerusalem, first studying at the École Biblique, then teaching various subjects including history and exegesis there. From 1938 to 1953 he

216-705: The Revue Biblique while he was editor and two chapters for the first volume of the Cambridge Ancient History ("Palestine during the neolithic and chalcolithic periods" and "Palestine in the Early Bronze Age"), de Vaux is famous for the following two works. In 1959 he gave the Schweich Lectures at the British Academy , in which he presented his analysis of the archaeological site of Qumran . His conclusions included

243-601: The Revue biblique regarding the likely location of the city of David caused some criticism; even more was generated by '"The Sources of the Pentateuch", a reexamination of Moses' part in the composition of the first five books of the Bible. But Pope Leo was not inclined to discourage new ideas. Lagrange adhered to the 1893 encyclical Providentissimus Deus of Pope Leo XIII regarding biblical research, and as long as Pope Leo

270-517: The Revue biblique . While some contemporaries criticized the new scientific and critical approach to the Bible, Lagrange made use of it. A scholar of wide-ranging interests, he was the author of Critique textuelle; II, La critique rationnelle (Paris, 1936), an influential handbook of textual theory and method as related to the textual criticism of the New Testament . He was made a Master of Sacred Theology in 1901. Lagrange's first article in

297-594: The Semitic languages , Assyriology , Egyptology , other aspects of ancient history, geography , and ethnography . It has the power to confer official doctorates in Holy Scripture . It publishes the Revue Biblique (RB), which is a diverse collection of scholarship from its fields of excellence. It also publishes material addressed to larger audiences, including a particular French translation of

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324-564: The 19th-century renaissance of biblical studies, was suspected of being a Modernist. The historical-critical method was considered suspect by the Vatican. Père Lagrange's 1904 book, The Historical Method , drew criticism. In 1905, the Pontifical Biblical Commission issued a caution about two of his methodological principles. The situation worsened with the enactment of the papal decree Lamentabili sane exitu and

351-644: The Bible , known as the Jerusalem Bible (a work which strove both for critical translational rigour and for quality as a piece of literature). Among its most illustrious members, in addition to Marie-Joseph Lagrange, are Marie-Emile Boismard , Roland de Vaux , Raymond-Jacques Tournay , Jerome Murphy-O'Connor , and Pierre Benoit . 31°47′06″N 35°13′49″E  /  31.78500°N 35.23028°E  / 31.78500; 35.23028 Marie-Joseph Lagrange Marie-Joseph Lagrange (born Albert Marie-Henri Lagrange; 7 March 1855 – 10 March 1938)

378-852: The Dead Sea Scrolls . In his two volume set, Ancient Israel Volume 1: Social Institutions (1958) and Ancient Israel Volume 2: Religious Institutions (1960), de Vaux wrote comprehensively about what archaeology seemed to reveal about Ancient Israel. The Jerusalem Bible de Vaux is largely responsible for the introductions and notes in La Bible de Jerusalem (1961) which was translated into English and other languages to become The Jerusalem Bible edited by Alexander Jones and published in 1966. In their work The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception , Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh heavily criticized de Vaux, describing him as "ruthless, narrow-minded, bigoted and fiercely vindictive," anti-semitic and

405-839: The Ecole Biblique for four years. The cave later became known in Qumran nomenclature as Cave 1, the first cave to yield texts which became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first of five seasons of excavations at the nearby Qumran ruins commenced in December 1951. Besides excavating Qumran, de Vaux also did seasons at Wadi Murabba'at with Lankester Harding in 1952, and at ' Ein Feshkha , a few kilometres south of Qumran, in 1958, while returning regularly to Tell el-Far'ah (north) from 1946 to 1960. As de Vaux worked at Qumran and its vicinity more scrolls were found and these discoveries brought

432-511: The end of the century. 2) The nearby caves which contained the scrolls were related to the settlement at Qumran, as they both featured similar artefacts. 3) The site was the home of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes and that the contents of the scrolls often reflect what is known of the Essenes from the ancient Jewish historian, Josephus . These lectures were published as Archaeology and

459-710: The first five volumes of the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert , the official publication for editions of the scrolls. He continued as editor until his death in Jerusalem in 1971. He had worked on several excavations when Gerald Lankester Harding , the director of the Jordanian Antiquities Department, contacted him in 1947 to investigate a cave near the Dead Sea where some scrolls had been found. By that time he had been director of

486-603: The following: 1) The site of Qumran, besides an early use during the Iron Age, was inhabited from around 135 BCE to some time after 73 CE. This represented three separate periods of occupation, Period I, to the earthquake of 31 BCE, Period II from the reign of Archelaus , 4 CE, to the destruction at the hands of the Romans at the start of the Jewish War in 68 CE, and Period III, Roman military occupation until some time before

513-626: The papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis by Pius X in 1907, both of which condemned Modernism as heretical. In 1909, conflict between the Dominicans and the Jesuits , common at the time, resulted in the Pope's creation of the Pontifical Biblical Institute , as a Jesuit rival to the school. In 1912 Lagrange was given an order of silence for the Revue Biblique to cease publication and to return to France. The École itself

540-582: The ruins of an ancient predecessor, to which the supposed relics of Saint Stephen were transferred in 439, making the Byzantine-period church the centre of the cult of this particular saint. Since its creation, the school has been involved in the exegesis of biblical text, and has carried out archaeological research, in a complementary manner and without secrecy, in Palestine and the adjacent territories. Its principal disciplines are epigraphy ,

567-531: The use of historical criticism in the study of the Bible, ending previous tensions between the school and the Vatican. Following the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls , the scholars at the school have been heavily involved in the translation and interpretation of the texts. In 1956 the School published La Bible de Jérusalem , a work which strove both for critical translational rigour and for quality as

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594-577: Was Dominican priest and founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem . His cause for beatification has been initiated in 1991. Albert Marie-Henri Lagrange was born 7 March 1855, in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. At the age of three, he received a blessing from the Curé d’Ars . At the junior Seminary of Autun, he studied languages: Greek, German, English, and Italian. He studied law at Paris, obtaining

621-643: Was a French Dominican priest who led the Catholic team that initially worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls . He was the director of the École Biblique , a French Catholic Theological School in East Jerusalem , and he was charged with overseeing research on the scrolls. His team excavated the ancient site of Khirbet Qumran (1951–1956) as well as several caves near Qumran northwest of the Dead Sea . The excavations were led by Ibrahim El-Assouli, caretaker of

648-417: Was alive, his work quietly progressed. But after Leo's death, an ultra-conservative reaction set in. Père Lagrange, like other scholars involved in the 19th-century renaissance of biblical studies, was suspected of being a Modernist . The historical-critical method was considered suspect by the Vatican. His 1904 book, The Historical Method , drew criticism. In 1905, the Pontifical Biblical Commission issued

675-538: Was closed for a year, but was then re-opened by the new Pope Benedict XV and Lagrange was allowed to return to Jerusalem continue its work. In 1920 the school took its current name, following its recognition, by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , as a national archaeological school in France. The enactment of the papal encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu by Pope Pius XII in 1943 officially sanctioned

702-555: Was sent back to Jerusalem to continue his work. His best known work is L’Évangile de Jésus Christ . Lagrange spent forty-five years in Jerusalem. In 1935 he returned to France permanently for reasons of health, and died on 10 March 1938 at the age of eighty-four. In 1967, his remains were returned to Jerusalem for burial in the choir of the Basilica of St-Étienne, next to the École Biblique. Roland de Vaux Roland Guérin de Vaux OP (17 December 1903 – 10 September 1971)

729-489: Was the editor of Revue Biblique . He became interested in archaeological studies while living in Jerusalem, learning as he went from people such as William F. Albright , Kathleen Kenyon and Benjamin Mazar . In 1945 he became the director of the École, a position he held until 1965. In 1956, although not an epigraphist, de Vaux became the editor in chief for the gradual production of the Dead Sea Scrolls, being responsible for

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