 Saint-Étienne priory, home of the École Biblique. | |
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| Abbreviation | École biblique |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1890; 136 years ago (1890) |
| Founder | Marie-Joseph Lagrange |
| Founded at | Jerusalem |
| Fields | Biblical studies Biblical archeology |
President | Kevin Stephens |
Director | Oliver Poquillon |
Main organ | Revue Biblique |
| Affiliations | Order of Preachers |
| Website | www |
École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, commonly known asÉcole Biblique, is a French academic establishment inJerusalem specializing inarchaeology andBiblicalexegesis. It is housed by theSaint-Étienne priory. Associated with theOrder of Preachers (Dominicans), it is one of two major Roman Catholic biblical academies in Jerusalem, along with theStudium Biblicum Franciscanum.
The school was founded in 1890 under the nameÉcole pratique d'études bibliques byMarie-Joseph Lagrange, aDominican priest. Its studies were officially sanctioned byPope Leo XIII in his papal encyclicalProvidentissimus Deus in 1893.
The election ofPope Pius X in 1903 saw the beginning of a conservative reaction against perceived"Modernists" inside the Catholic Church. Lagrange, like other scholars involved in the 19th-century renaissance of biblical studies, was suspected of being a Modernist.[1] The historical-critical method was considered suspect by the Vatican. Lagrange's 1904 book,The Historical Method, drew criticism. In 1905, thePontifical Biblical Commission issued a caution about two of his methodological principles.
The situation worsened with the enactment of the papal decreeLamentabili sane exitu and the papal encyclicalPascendi Dominici gregis by Pius X in 1907, both of which condemned Modernism as heretical. In 1909, conflict between the Dominicans and theJesuits, common at the time, resulted in the Pope's creation of thePontifical Biblical Institute, as a Jesuit rival to the school.[2] In 1912 Lagrange was given an order of silence for theRevue Biblique to cease publication and to return to France. The École itself was closed for a year, but was then re-opened by the newPope 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 theAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, as a national archaeological school in France. The enactment of the papal encyclicalDivino afflante Spiritu byPope Pius XII in 1943 officially sanctioned the use of historical criticism in the study of the Bible, ending previous tensions between the school and the Vatican.
Following the discovery of theDead Sea Scrolls, the scholars at the school have been heavily involved in the translation and interpretation of the texts. In 1956 the School publishedLa Bible de Jérusalem, a work which strove both for critical translational rigour and for quality as a piece of literature; a second, revised version, was published in 1998.
Since 2005, the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem (EBAF) has maintained a storehouse in Gaza City for finds from its archaeological research in the region. Israeli forces entered the facility in January 2024 during theIsraeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.[3]
On 11 September 2025, the storehouse faced near destruction after the building was designated for an air strike by Israeli forces. Staff and local workers mounted a secret, high-risk evacuation to save most of the 180 cubic meters of archaeological artefacts, including material from the fourth-centurySaint Hilarion Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, before the strike. Mosaics and other fragile remains at the excavation sites were left exposed and vulnerable to bombardment.[4]
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.[5]
The priory is centred around the modernBasilica of St Stephen (Saint-Étienne) built over the ruins of an ancient predecessor, to which the supposed relics ofSaint Stephen were transferred in 439, making theByzantine-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, inPalestine and the adjacent territories. Its principal disciplines areepigraphy, theSemitic languages,Assyriology,Egyptology, other aspects of ancient history,geography, andethnography.
It has the power to confer official doctorates inHoly Scripture.
It publishes theRevue Biblique (RB), which is a diverse collection of scholarship from its fields of excellence.
It also publishes material addressed to larger audiences, including a particularFrench translation of the Bible, known as theJerusalem 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:
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