JOÜON, PAUL. - Jesuit Semitist, born at Nantes on 26 Feb. 1871, died there on 18 Feb. 1940.
Professor of Hebrew language at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut (1907–14), then at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1915–26), he left important works: besides a *Grammaire de l'hébreu biblique* (Rome 1923, new ed. 1947), which is authoritative, one should note a commentary on the Song of Songs (Paris 1909), an annotated translation of the Gospels based on the Semitic substratum (in *Verbum salutis*, V, Paris 1930), and above all, perhaps, the very numerous notes on Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek biblical lexicography published in *Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph*, 3–18 (1908 ff.), in *Biblica*, 1–23 (1920–42), and in *Recherches de science religieuse*, 15–30 (1925–40).