École Biblique

ÉCOLE BIBLIQUE. - The first Catholic center for scientific biblical studies, founded by the Dominican M.-J. Lagrange in Jerusalem in 1890, at the suggestion of Leo XIII to Fr. M. Leconte, who acquired the land and built the convent next to the ruins of the ancient basilica of St. Stephen. Under the brilliant and tireless direction of Lagrange, on Nov. 15, 1890, courses began in exegesis, introduction, and all the subsidiary subjects (languages, history, geography, archaeology, history of religions, etc.) concerning the Bible and the ancient cultures related to it. Lagrange was assisted by chosen confreres from the three French provinces of the Order. Conferences on Palestinian and Oriental studies accompanied the aforementioned courses from the very beginning; a great library was rapidly enriched with the most precious ancient and modern works; an archaeological museum received the fruits of the important discoveries made. Students from all orders, priests and laymen of every nation, flocked to the E. b.

In 1892 the publication of the Revue Biblique began, for the dissemination of the research and studies of the professors of the E. b. Rigorously scientific, it embraces all the specialties of the biblical field (cf. the letter of Leo XIII to Fr. Lagrange: Hierosalpinus in coenobis, of Sept. 17, 1892, in Revue Biblique, 2 [1893], pp. 1-3). In 1902 the exegetical collection Etudes Bibliques was launched, announced in Revue Biblique, 9 (1900), pp. 114-22: «We need Catholic commentaries founded on a good translation of the originals from a carefully reconstructed critical text, with special application to literary criticism... It will above all be the explanation of the text...» (ibid., p. 422). This program is also that of the E. b.: «the exact knowledge of the text, the cultivation of the literal sense, the search for the integral thought and in the nuances of the sacred authors» (Spice), exploiting all the results and the method of scientific research (cf. the encyclicals Providentissimus [1893] and Divino afflante Spiritu [1943]).

The E. attributed particular importance to archaeological explorations in Palestine and neighboring regions, in Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Its contribution in this field is notable, as the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres recognized, entrusting to it in 1920 the Ecole française archéologique of Jerusalem. The fruit of so much work appears principally in the formation of excellent exegetes and specialists in the various branches, in the undiminished importance of the Revue Biblique, in the grandiose works of the inestimable collection Etudes Bibliques (volumes by Frs. Lagrange, Dhorne, Abel, Allo, etc.), in the archaeological studies of Frs. Vincent, Abel, Jaussen, Savignac. The E. b. has fully responded to its mission, operating as a leaven in the movement of the scientific study of the Bible in the first half of our century.

Francesco Spadafora