In a brand new setting, the regular students, researchers, doctoral students and volunteers for the 2023-2024 academic year have begun their journey at the École Biblique et Archéologique de Jérusalem, in this country, “the theatre of biblical history”… a country in which we must not lose sight of “the asceticism of the office” – in the words of the prior of the convent, Brother Martin Staszak.
The School is delighted to welcome students and doctoral candidates from a wide range of backgrounds.
Among them are two scholarship holders from the Académie de l’Inscription et des Belles Lettres: Charlotte Damiano-Boulland in archaeology and Barthélémy Enfrein in biblical sciences. We have six students from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and an Austrian Cistercian from the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, Brother Georg Winter, while scholarship holders come from Oxford (Vladimir Olivero), Germany (Maria Bernadette Lang) and Cameroon (Claude Otabela). In all, the School has more than 20 students… not forgetting all our doctoral students and researchers!
The Bible in its Traditions team has been strengthened by the addition of two students from the École Normale Supérieure, Ketsiah Briard and Beatriz de Isasi, and a friar from the convent in Lyon, Brother Thomas Carrique.
Over three days, the Class of 2023-2024 swept through every dimension of the École.
The seminar began with a history of the School by Studies Secretary Marc Leroy, a lesson in the geography of the Levant by Łukasz Popko and a lesson in periodisation by Martin Staszak.
Of course, students, volunteers and researchers enjoyed the traditional tour of the old city by Yunus Demirci, in the context of the Sukkot feasts, and an epigraphy workshop with Émile Puech. Time was also devoted to the translation of the Bible in all its versions by Brother Olivier-Thomas Venard, and to the historical study of the Old Testament (Brother Martin Stastzak) and the New Testament (Brother Anthony Giambrone).
Finally, the group discovered the jewels in its crown: the library, photo library and archaeology department were all explored with amazed eyes!