Tribute from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem
It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Fr Justin Taylor, SM, who passed away on 6 January 2026 in Herne Bay (New Zealand), at the age of 82.
Born on 26 August 1943 in Wellington (New Zealand), Justin Taylor was educated by the Brigidine Sisters and the Marist Fathers at St Patrick’s College. He entered the Marist seminary at Greenmeadows in 1960, made his religious profession on 7 January 1963, and was ordained a priest on 2 July 1966. After undertaking language studies in France and Germany, he went on to pursue university studies in history at the University of Cambridge, where he obtained a doctorate and served as a Research Fellow of Downing College.
Fr Justin maintained a long-standing association with the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem. He first resided there as a researcher in 1983–1984 and again in 1985–1986, before joining the School’s academic staff in 1988. A specialist in the New Testament and early Christianity, and a disciple of Fr Boismard in the field of textual criticism, he carried out sustained work in research, teaching and publication. In particular, he led seminars on the Acts of the Apostles (together with Étienne Nodet) and on reading the New Testament as literature emerging from the Judaism of the Second Temple period (together with Olivier-Thomas Venard and Serge Ruzer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem), thereby highlighting the rootedness of the earliest Christian communities within their Jewish and historical context.
From 2007 to 2010, he served as Vice-Director of the École biblique, after having spent several years in Rome in the service of the General Administration of the Society of Mary. He also agreed to become the first Director of the Editorial Committee of La Bible en ses Traditions. Throughout his career, he was frequently invited to give lectures, lead retreats and undertake research projects in New Zealand, Australia and in several Marist provinces.
Alongside his exegetical work, Fr Justin devoted a significant part of his later years to historical and spiritual research. He was notably the author of the biography of Jean-Claude Colin, founder of the Society of Mary (Jean-Claude Colin, Reluctant Founder, 1790–1875), published in 2018 and subsequently followed by an abridged version translated into several languages. In 2020, despite declining health, he became a consulting member of the Colin Cause Network, to which he continued to contribute actively until his final years.
The École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem retains a grateful memory of a rigorous teacher, a scholar attentive to sources, and a discreetly pious consecrated man, deeply committed to the service of biblical research and intellectual formation. It joins in prayer with his religious family and his loved ones, and entrusts Fr Justin Taylor to the mercy of God.
Requiescat in pace.