FREY, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - Religious of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Hebraist, b. at Ingersheim (diocese of Strasbourg) on 26 April 1878, d. at Rome on 19 March 1939. He completed his studies at the Pontifical French Seminary in Rome, where he was subsequently, in turn, a repetitor, professor of Sacred Scripture, prefect of studies and, finally, in 1933, superior. He brilliantly obtained, in 1910, the doctorate in biblical sciences from the Pontifical Biblical Commission, of which shortly afterwards (16 Nov. 1910) he was appointed consultor; on the death of Msgr. L. E. Janssens he became its secretary (26 Nov. 1925).
His doctoral thesis on La théologie juive au temps de N.-S. Jésus-Christ (1912) appeared in separate articles 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 [1920], pp. 662-63) and in the DBs (I [1920], coll. 354-460).
Special studies on the Hebrew concept of the immortality of the soul and of the future life, conducted on Hebrew inscriptions, which he published in Biblica (1930), Recherches de sciences religieuses (1930), Revue biblique (1932), Bullettino del Museo dell'Impero romano (1933), Rivista di archeologia cristiana (1928-31), prepared his Corpus inscriptionum Iudaicarum, a collection of Hebrew inscriptions from the 3rd century B.C. to the 7th century A.D. (Vatican City 1936). It comprises only the Jewish inscriptions of Europe, because death prevented F. from publishing the subsequent volumes (cf. A. Ferrua, Epigrafia ebraica, in Civ. Cat., 1936, III, pp. 461-73; IV, pp. 126-37; L. Robert, review in Revue des études juives, 101 [1937], pp. 73-86; A. Vaccaro, review in Biblica, 19 [1938], pp. 340-42). Also to be noted: Royaume de Dieu, in DB, V (1918), coll. 1237-1257; Le concept de vie dans l'Évangile de St Jean, in Biblica, 1 (1920), pp. 37-58, 211-39; Apocalyptique, in DBs, I (1928), coll. 326-54; Apocryphes de l'Ancien Testament, ibid., coll. 354-460.
Bibliography2 works
Antonio Seirat