FREY, JEAN-BAPTISTE. – Spiritan priest, Hebraist, born at Ingersheim (diocese of Strasbourg) on 26 April 1878, died in Rome on 19 March 1939. After completing his studies at the Pontifical French Seminary in Rome, he served there successively as tutor, professor of Sacred Scripture, prefect of studies, and finally, in 1933, as superior. In 1910, he successfully obtained a doctorate in biblical sciences from the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and shortly thereafter (16 November 1910) was appointed its consultant. Upon the death of Msgr. L. E. Janssens, he became its secretary (26 November 1925).
His doctoral thesis, *La théologie juive au temps de N.-S. Jésus-Christ* (1912), was expanded into separate articles published in *Revue biblique*, *Biblica*, *Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques*, and also in *Gregorianum* (1927). At the same time, he published introductory studies on the apocrypha in the *Institutiones biblicae* (Rome 1925; 5th ed., ibid. 1937, pp. 158–217), in the *Enc. Ital.* (III [1929], pp. 662–63), and in the *DBs* (I [1929], cols. 334–460).
Special studies on the Hebrew concept of the immortality of the soul and of future life, based on Hebrew inscriptions, appeared in *Biblica* (1930), *Recherches de sciences religieuses* (1930), *Revue biblique* (1932), *Bullettino del Museo dell’Impero romano* (1933), and the *Rivista di archeologia cristiana* (1928–37). These prepared the way for his *Corpus inscriptionum Judaicarum*, a collection of Hebrew inscriptions from the 3rd century B.C. to the 7th century A.D. (Vatican City 1936). This work includes only the Jewish inscriptions of Europe, as death prevented F. from publishing the subsequent volumes (cf. A. Ferrara, *Epigrafia ebraica*, in *Civ. Cal.*, 1936, III, pp. 461–73; IV, pp. 126–37; L. Robert, review in *Revue des études juives*, 1917, pp. 73–86; A. Vaccari, review in *Biblica*, 19 [1938], pp. 340–42). Also noteworthy are: *Royaume de Dieu*, in *DB*, V (1918), cols. 1237–1257; *Le concept de vie dans l’Évangile de St Jean*, in *Biblica*, I (1920), pp. 37–58, 211–39; *Apocalyptique*, in *DB*, I (1928), cols. 326–54; *Apocryphes de l’Ancien Testament*, ibid., cols. 354–460.