Jean-Dominique Barthélemy (1921-2002), scholar
Jean-Dominique Barthélemy (1921-2002) was a French scholar. Born on May 16th, 1921 in Pallet, Barthélemy was a Dominican father, Old Testament scholar and epigraphist. He entered the orders in 1940 and was ordained priest in 1947. Member of the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, he studied the manuscripts of Qumrân and, in association with Józef T. Milik, published fragments of manuscripts found in Cave 1. He became professor of Old Testament to the Catholic Faculty of Theology and the Vice-Rector of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). From 1953 he developed an interest in the Qumran Scrolls and the Minor Prophets and published in 1963 "Les devanciers d'Aquila" (The Predecessors of Aquila), in which he introduced innovative hypotheses concerning the translations and the Greek revisions of the Old Testament. His work on the Dead Sea Scrolls revolutionized the study of the historical development of the Greek texts of the Bible. He also made key contributions that would eventually lead to the reconstruction by Annie Jaubert of the calendar of the Book of Jubilees. Barthélemy was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
Works
Books
- Les devanciers d'Aquila; première publication intégrale du texte des fragments du Dodécaprophéton trouvés dans le désert de Juda (Leiden 1963)
- (with O. Rickenbacher). Konkordanz zum hebräischen Sirach: mit syr.-hebrä. Index (Göttingen 1973)
- Études d'histoire du texte de l'Ancien Testament (1978 Barthélemy), book
Articles in academic journals
- Notes en marges de publications récentes sur les Manuscrits de Qumrân / Jean-Dominique Barthélemy / Revue Biblique 59 (1952) 187-218