Lorsqu’il était encore étudiant à l’École Normale Supérieure, Régis Burnet a réussi à concilier son travail de normalien et son intérêt pour la Bible en travaillant sur les épîtres de Saint Paul en grec. Il a ensuite enseigné en ateliers d’écriture dans des IUT, avant de devenir professeur de Nouveau Testament à l’Université Catholique de Louvain. Régis Burnet est également présentateur d’une émission de réflexion sur la foi pour la chaîne KTO depuis 2006. Cet attrait pour les textes bibliques, qui ne l’a pas quitté depuis ses années d’études, l’a conduit à demander une année sabbatique à son université, pour se consacrer à l’écriture de son vingtième livre[1].

Sur quoi travaillez-vous en ce moment ?
Je travaille en ce moment sur l’histoire de la réception des textes bibliques, à travers les œuvres d’art. C’est-à-dire comprendre, d’après les représentations qu’on en a faites, comment différents passages ou différentes personnalités de la Bible ont été interprétés dans l’histoire, et comment et pourquoi cette interprétation a pu évoluer depuis.

En quoi est-ce important ?
Parce qu’on croit toujours arriver sans préjugés sur les textes que l’on aborde ; or, nous sommes imprégnés des œuvres qu’on connaît et qui nous influencent dans la compréhension de ces textes. Prendre conscience de ces préjugés nous permet de nous en détacher et d’aborder le texte de façon plus neutre, ou plus personnelle.

Le texte est un miroir, mais un miroir partiel. On le lit d’après nos codes et notre histoire, et l’étudier de cette façon nous fait nous poser la question de pourquoi le texte était interprété de telle ou telle manière à une certaine époque, et pourquoi nous l’interprétons personnellement, aujourd’hui, d’une autre façon. Sans remettre en cause le fait que le texte parle à chacun de manière personnelle, cela nous aide seulement à comprendre et à remettre en question nos propres clefs de compréhension, et donc à pousser plus loin notre réflexion.

Je pense par exemple à l’attitude de Thomas lorsque les disciples lui disent avoir vu le Christ ressuscité ; depuis le V-VIème siècle, on ne peut lire le texte que comme une condamnation de Thomas, qui aurait dû croire sans voir. Mais auparavant, le texte était lu comme Thomas qui doute non pas sur le fait que les autres disciples aient vu quelque chose, mais sur ce qu’ils ont vu.

Pourquoi être venu un mois à l’École biblique pour ce travail ?
D’abord parce que j’aime Jérusalem et que c’est un lieu particulier pour travailler sur les textes bibliques ! Par ailleurs, j’ai connu l’École en travaillant sur l’histoire de la réception pour la BEST (La Bible en ses Traditions) avec Fr. Olivier-Thomas Venard. L’École biblique est au cœur de l’histoire de la réception et regorge de savants qui creusent les différents textes de la Bible, et les conversations avec eux sont donc très intéressantes, pour moi et pour faire avancer mon travail.
Par ailleurs la bibliothèque de l’École, calme, belle et bien fournie est un lieu ou il fait bon travailler !

Et ensuite ?
Pour l’instant, je remercie beaucoup l’université de Louvain qui m’a donné l’opportunité de prendre cette année pour travailler sur mon livre. J’espère avoir terminé le manuscrit à la fin de l’année scolaire, puis je continuerai les cours sur le Nouveau Testament, jusqu’à ma retraite… pendant laquelle je reprendrai peut être les ateliers d’écriture que j’ai beaucoup aimé donner au début de ma carrière, édifié par ce que les étudiants étaient capables de produire, et par leur fierté de voir leurs créations !

[1]. Voir en particulier Épître et Lettres (Cerf : 2003), Marie-Madeleine de la pécheresse pardonnée à l’épouse de Jésus (Cerf : 2004), L’Égypte ancienne à travers les papyrus(Pygmalion : 2007) ; L’Évangile de la trahison, une biographie théologique de Judas (Seuil : 2007) ; Les Douze Apôtres (Brepols : 2013) ; Que celui qui ne travaille pas ne mange pas (Cerf : 2015).

After serving for two years as Prior of the Dominican community in Geneva, Brother Pierre de Marolles has now been assigned to Jerusalem to continue his doctoral research on the Book of Revelation (a.k.a. Apocalypse of John). Born in Versailles and having spent part of his childhood in Switzerland, he first studied mathematics before entering the Order of Preachers. His spiritual and intellectual journey has taken him from the favelas of Brazil to the lecture halls of the University of Fribourg, and then to the libraries of Louvain-la-Neuve and Geneva. His doctoral thesis explores how the mysterious “book sealed with seven seals” (Rev 5) has been interpreted over the centuries. An encounter with a biblical scholar passionate about the life of texts and the way they nourish the faith of believers.

Brother Pierre, could you present your thesis on Revelation? What drew you to this particular book?
I had known for a long time that I would work on the Book of Revelation. It is a text that has always intrigued me. What is astonishing is that it is both very well known and yet profoundly misunderstood. Everyone thinks they know what it contains — the horsemen, the trumpets, the end of the world… — whereas, in reality, very few actually read it properly. Revelation exerts a kind of fascination, but often for the wrong reasons.

So you want to take a new look a book that is usually mischaracterised…
Exactly. So many believers could find genuine treasures there for their faith. It is a text of immense theological and artistic power. Why continue to deprive ourselves of the book that inspired the mosaics of the Roman basilicas, the tapestries of the Château d’Angers and the Ghent Altarpiece of the Mystical Lamb?

But how did the idea of making it the topic of your thesis come about?
It developed while I was working on my Master’s dissertation — on an ancient commentary. At that time, I met Régis Burnet, Professor of the New Testament in Louvain-la-Neuve, a specialist in the history of the reception of biblical texts. He was just beginning to take a particular interest in Revelation, and I knew he would be a good doctoral supervisor. As I was then living in Zurich, we planned a joint supervision arrangement with the Faculty of Theology in Geneva, together with Prof. Anne-Catherine Baudoin. Together, we chose to study how the image of the “book sealed with seven seals”, in chapter 5, has been interpreted throughout history.

“The book with seven seals” — it sounds like the title of a novel!
Yes, it has something mysterious about it. And it has fascinated readers for two millennia. To avoid getting lost in the vast number of commentaries written about it, I chose to focus on three authors: Victorinus of Poetovio, a bishop in the 3rd century; Joachim of Fiore, a Calabrian abbot in the 12th century; and Heinrich Bullinger, a Protestant theologian in the 16th century. Three periods; three intellectual worlds; three very different approaches to interpreting the same text.

Can you explain what the “reception history” is, really?
Reception history has to do with the life of a text after it has been written: how it has been read, understood, commented on, illustrated and translated. It is a fascinating way to study the Bible, because it shows how the Word has continued to resonate throughout history. Whereas the historical-critical method tries to trace the text back into its past — its context, its composition — reception history looks toward its future. As Paul Ricœur said, it is only once a text is complete that it truly begins to live.

And for the Book of Revelation, this “life of the text” is particularly eventful, isn’t it?
Absolutely. If today many see it as a scenario of the end of the world, it is because our reading has been shaped by certain modern traditions, particularly those coming from evangelical Protestantism. But in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Revelation was read quite differently: not as a story of fear, but as a vision of the heavenly joy into which the Church is already called to enter. Exploring this history also helps us free ourselves from our own prejudices and rediscover the richness of the text.

Among the authors you study, which ones have surprised you the most?
The first, Victorinus of Poetovio, offers an explanation of chapter 4 of Revelation that I find brilliant. He interprets the four Living Creatures around the throne — the lion, the ox, the human and the eagle — as the four Gospels, and the twenty-four Elders as the books of the Old Testament. Since the four Living Creatures have as many wings as there are Elders, he explains that the Gospels, in order to “fly” into the world, need the prophetic impetus of the Old Testament, and that the books of the Old Testament, to be “alive”, need the light of Christ. It is both poetic and profoundly theological.

And the other two?
Joachim of Fiore, in the 12th century, quite simply helped to shape our modern conception of history by finding in Revelation a prophecy of the different ages of the world. As for Bullinger, he writes in Zurich to console English Protestant exiles fleeing persecution. For him, the sealed book given to the Lamb represents the destinies of the world: in other words, everything is in the hands of Christ; there is no need to be afraid. For him, Revelation is a book of consolation.

So your thesis helps us to reread Revelation as good news…
Yes, and more than that: to show that the history of the text’s reception helps us to understand that there is not just one way of reading the Bible. People sometimes ask me: “All right, but in the end, what is your interpretation?” As if the readings of the past had nothing left to tell us! On the contrary, they reveal that the Bible is not a code to be deciphered once and for all. It’s an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

And does this approach affect your way of practicing your faith, or preaching?
Very much so. Last year in Geneva, a parishioner asked me to teach a course on the “difficult texts” of the Bible. We read passages that people usually avoid: Sodom and Gomorrah, the sacrifice of Abraham, the stoning of adulterers, or even the anathema of Jericho. Instead of lining up reassuring explanations to say that “it’s not so bad”, I preferred to show how these texts had been understood and received over the centuries. Participants discovered that they were not the first to feel unsettled by such passages; that, before them, generations of believers had read them and tried to discern in them the presence of God. In contemplating this long history of reading, they perceived how even the most challenging texts can become sources of understanding and inspiration for the life of faith. I believe that many finished that journey full of wonder at all that the Bible and its tradition have to offer those who dare to read it…

The interview ends with that word: wonder. Thank you to Brother Pierre for sharing his lively insight into the Word, and best wishes for the next phase of his research in Jerusalem.

— Interview conducted by Br Erik Ross

The preceding interview was originally published in the bulletin of the Dominican province of France, Prêcheurs, in its November 2025 issue.

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For his first book translated in French, friar Anthony Giambrone, himself an exegete, returns to the context surrounding the French translation of his book: A Quest for historical Christ.

What inspired you to write this book?

“The book is actually a collection of fifteen different papers that I was invited to deliver at various conferences.  At a certain point, it became clear that a more or less coherent body of work was emerging and an editor suggested that I gather the texts together under one cover.  

Regarding the specific topic of the historical Jesus, this is something that I have thought about and worked on fairly intensively since my days as a doctoral student.  I was a graduate assistant of the late John P. Meier, an indisputable giant in the field.  I learned a great deal working with him, but I was also not entirely satisfied with his approach.  Many of the basic orientations that I explore in the book began percolating and taking shape as I first worked my way through Fr. Meier’s project.”

How did the translation of the book into French come about?

“Fr. Renaud Silly, OP, engineered the whole operation.  After he discovered the book and began using it in the classroom, he determined that it would be useful to present to a broader Francophone public.  For a variety of reasons the theological and exegetical discussions in the Anglophone world have taken different directions than the conversation in France, which made the translation both a compelling project, and also a real conceptual and cultural challenge.  Regis Burnet, who was generous enough to pen the preface, did a nice job trying to ease and explain the jolt that some of my exegetical (not doctrinal) heterodoxies might elicit for certain readers: “pour le lecteur francophone… une lecture déroutante” is his opening phrase.  My own particular English style, which Fr. Renaud dubbed something like “decadent baroque satire,” certainly posed another challenge; but he creatively assembled a team of gifted translators who worked together under his personal direction.  The contract with Les Belles Lettres was also entirely his doing, as is the lecture tour that he has now orchestrated for me in the beginning of December to publicize the work in France.”

What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

“My explicit intention with the book was to think more deeply about how to connect serious theological reflection with the so-called “Quest for the Historical Jesus”.  As such, I try to plant my reflections in an admittedly unusual place, positioned—like the Ecole itself—at a balanced midpoint between the academy and the Church.”

“Such a hermeneutical move undoubtedly looks retrograde and downright benighted for more empirically minded historiographical spirits; but my interest is not in cheap apologetics.  Ironically, the book even appears to me, far from reactionary, to stand in a certain demonstrable continuity with prior work in the field, beginning with major figures like D. F. Strauss and Albert Schweitzer, whose massive interventions were hardly the disengaged exercise of some pure Enlightenment ideal of “objective” secular reason, but instead in each case carried open and profound theological freight.  So, on the one side, I want to legitimate a more open recognition of what the modern of study of Jesus actually is and always has been—for both good and ill; while on the other side, I also hope to carve out space for a variety of more or less innovative proposals that I think can move us in some promising new directions.”

“A lot of Christians have fear of or disaffection for this stuff.  Yet, Christology, hence our very Christian confession, is impoverished and even irresponsible without an earnest historical engagement, I want to say.  I am not trying to convince unbelievers by some pretended historical demonstrations, however.  But I do mean to indicate that faith in Jesus’ divinity entails a robust trust in our historical sources, and that this trust, in truth, demands no sacrificium intellectus, but instead invites a very stimulating and sophisticated engagement of the human mind.”

A Quest for the Historical Christ  now available in French.

Some future writing plans?

“Too many.  I have another manuscript that is due to appear next year: Common Doctor, Uncommon Exegesis: Reading Scripture in the School of Thomas Aquinas.  Behind that comes a Greek-English edition of the Apologists.  Lots of articles and essays in the meantime and a couple more books in the works.”

For Christmas, gift a copy of La Quête du Christ historique at Les Belles Lettres.