Born in Paris on 17 December 1903, Roland de Vaux studied at the Collège Stanislas, then at the Sorbonne. After his degree, he entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, where he was ordained priest on June 29, 1929. But, having resolved to enter the Order of Preachers, he entered the novitiate at Amiens in September 1929, made profession there on 23 September 1930 and immediately made his studies at the Saulchoir de Cain in Belgium, where he remained until 1933. He then turned particularly to medieval philosophy, which explains the research leading to his first publication, dedicated to Avicenna. But he also turned to orientalism, before being asked, in 1933, by the École Biblique to complete the team of teachers then famous but aging. He arrived in Jerusalem in September 1933.
Father de Vaux first studied there for two years, under the direction of the PP. Lagrange, Vincent, Abel or Savignac. He passed the Bible Commission exams in June 1935. Back in Jerusalem, he was appointed professor of biblical history and archaeology, two subjects that would also be his main fields of research for the rest of his life. He taught these two disciplines from 1935 to 1971 without interruption. He also taught Assyro-Babylonian from 1935 to 1940 and Old Testament exegesis from 1946 to 1949, while preparing his translations for the first Jerusalem Bible. His former students agree in praising his pedagogical sense and brilliant presentations, with the absolute honesty he demonstrated as a researcher.
From these teachings came out several important works, starting with the Jerusalem Bible fascicles on Genesis, the Books of Samuel and the Kings. He also played a major role in the one-volume edition of the Jerusalem Bible in 1956. The two volumes of his Old Testament Institutions were translated into many languages.
He began his work as an archaeologist with modest campaigns that followed his first archaeological exploration in the Salt region of Transjordan in the summer of 1937. That same year, he and Fr. Savignac excavated the church of Ma'în, near Madaba (Jordan). In 1944, he and Fr. Stève carried out the excavation of an old caravanserai near the biblical Qiriat Yearim (Abu Gosh). Still with Fr. Stève, he then worked (1945-1946) on the site of el-Ma'moudiyeh, a Byzantine sanctuary dedicated to St. John the Baptist, west of Hebron. In 1946, he attacked a more important site: the Tell el-Far'ah of the North, later identified as the ancient Tirça, the first capital of the northern kingdom, from which King Omri emigrated to Samaria. Nine campaigns were devoted to this site until 1960.
In the middle of these Tell el-Far'ah campaigns, the "Qumran affair" arose, named after the manuscripts discovered in caves on the Dead Sea in 1947. From 1949 to 1958, Fr. de Vaux was responsible for the excavations of the various caves for the Bible School, and then for those of the Qumran site itself. In 1952, de Vaux organized a campaign of excavations at the wadi Murab'baat, followed by an excavation of the Qumran site every winter until 1956. Father de Vaux was also in charge of the international team responsible for studying and publishing the manuscripts, which were stored in the scrollery of the Rockefeller Museum until 1967. The findings of his research were presented in reports published in the Bible Review and in the 1959 "Schweich Lectures", lectures published in 1961 under the title Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls. From this book, Kathleen Kenyon could say: "This publication of his lectures is an monument to his skill as an excavator, as a historian and as an authority on the scrolls themselves".
Shortly afterwards, Fr. de Vaux was associated by Miss Kathleen Kenyon with the Jerusalem excavations: he was in charge of the southern part of the Mosque Esplanade, in the el-Khâtoûnîyeh district, which he searched from 1961 to 1963. The search was then resumed by Professor Mazar.
At the École Biblique, he also had heavy responsibilities to fulfil, since he was director of the Rebue Biblique from 1938 to 1953, director of the School from 1945 to 1965, as well as prior of the convent from 1949 to 1952. Appointed Consultant of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1956, then Master of Theology in 1958, he was called to Harvard as Visiting Professor for the year 1964-1965. The honours also followed since he was appointed correspondent member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1952, before becoming a non-resident free member in 1962. In 1961, he became a corresponding member of the British Academy, while subsequently being elected an honorary member of various scientific societies around the world. Several universities and colleges have also awarded him the title of Doctor honoris causa.
Struck by arteritis in early 1971, he gradually lost his health and died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Jerusalem on September 10, 1971. The funeral was held in Saint-Etienne on the 13th. His last work, Ancient History of Israel, was unfinished and was later completed and published by Fr. Langlamet.
