The first semester is coming to an end and, while some students take advantage of the break to visit the region, others pack their bags and leave the École Biblique and Jerusalem to return to their home universities. The École biblique is thus emptied of some of its residents and awaits the second semester students who are arriving slowly.
“Four months at the École biblique allowed me to test the relevance of Father Lagrange’s formula, according to which, in Jerusalem, one can study the document and the monument. I have the feeling that I have added a dimension – that of space, of geography – to my reading of the Scriptures: the fact of studying at the École biblique is to biblical studies what the transition to colour was for television, or the transition to 3D for the cinema. The experience is more complete, it transforms us, and shapes our reading of the Holy Scriptures.”
Fr. Norbert J., canonical licence student at the École biblique in the first semester
“It has been my dream to study at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem for eleven years. If I have to underline some significant aspects, for me, of this first semester, I would say the solidarity among the students, the fraternity with the Dominican friars and the topographical visit of the country. I feel an immense joy in realizing my dream of being in the place where Jesus spent his earthly life. I can’t wait to start the new exploration and adventure of the second semester.”
Thérèse W., year-round postdoctoral fellow at the École biblique
“After almost two years of waiting, I arrive at the compound looked at so many times on the maps. Finally, the territory! Finally, this city and its unparalleled symbolic power. When, as I got out of the taxi, the azan sounded to welcome me to the place of the relics of the Christian protomartyr, so close from the Temple Mount, the lover of monotheisms that I am shed three small tears for a very great joy!”
Isabelle L., postdoctoral fellow at the École biblique in the second semester