Jacques (Raymond in religion) Tournay, o.p. (JT)

Person

Jacques (Raymond in religion) Tournay, o.p. (JT)

• Father Raymond

1912-1999

Jacques Tournay was born in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, on March 28, 1912. He attended the Brothers' School of the Christian Schools of the Rue de Grenelle, then the Stanislas College and the Albert de Mun College in Nogent-sur-Marne. In 1926, after a serious pleurisy, he was forced to take refuge in the mountains: it was there that he met Dominicans, including Fr. Festugière.

He entered the novitiate in Amiens in 1930, where he received the name Raymond. It is at the Saulchoir de Cain, in Belgium, that he completed the philosophy and theology curriculum. He was ordained a priest on July 14, 1936. However, when he became Fr. Congar's secretary, he was approached by Fr. Chenu, who was under pressure from Fr. Lagrange to find a successor to the Orientalist Edouard Dhorme, to go and study at the École Biblique.

Tournay therefore began studying assyriology in 1938 in Leuven, learning Assyrian-Babylonian and Akkadian with Fr. Vincent Scheil, the first translator of the Hammurabi Code.

Tournay arrived in Palestine in September 1938, shortly after the death of Fr. Lagrange, in the middle of an intifada.
Reformed for health reasons, he was not mobilized in 1939 but took advantage of wartime to go to Rome for his biblical license. Just before Mussolini's entry into the war alongside the Germans, he was able to take refuge in Paris where he helped Fr. Vincent to continue as best he could the publication of the Bible Review under the name of Vivre et Penser.

He was then invited to teach Hebrew and exegesis at the Saulchoir d'Etiolles until the end of the war. In 1942, Fr. Chenu entrusted him with a translation of the Psalms made by Fr. Synave. This was the starting point of his interest in Hebrew poetry. He began his work with the help of a Jewish poet, Joseph Leibowitz, who was arrested shortly afterwards. From that moment on, Tournay sought to restore the psalms to their rhythm and accents.

Throughout the war, Tournay followed the courses of René Labat and Jean Nougayrol at the EPHE. He began studying the legends of Gilgamesh, which led to the publication of his Epic of Gilgamesh in 1994. He also became professor of Assyro-Babylonian at the Institut catholique de Paris.

After seeing some arrests of Jewish friends up close, he decided to join the Resistance and became a liaison officer for a group that broadcast clandestine programs from abroad. He also helps Jewish friends to hide from being caught many times.

In October 1945, Fr. Vincent and Fr. Tournay were finally able to return to Palestine. Tournay continues his research in Assyriology and travels to Mesopotamia, Syria and Turkey.

Since the creation of the State of Israel, Tournay has been committed to efforts towards peace. He was helped by his friend Léopold Sédar Senghor, a great lover of poetry like him. Subsequently, Tournay became involved in the defence of three villages near Latroun that had been destroyed by the Israeli army during the Six-Day War.
In 1964, Tournay became a tutor to Prince Hassan of Jordan, brother of King Hussein. He regularly stays in Amman and teaches him French, Hebrew and even Aramaic for several years. In 1967, after the loss of Jordanian sovereignty over Palestine, Tournay became the informal contact of Jordanian diplomacy for France and the Vatican. In 1997, he helped Prince Hassan write the French version of his book Christianity in the Arab World (1995), written to promote Christian-Muslim relations. The result of this work was the publication of the book Le Christianisme et l'Islam sont nés en Orient (Brepols, Paris, 1997), which opens with a preface by Fr. Tournay.

During his many years in Jerusalem, Fr. Tournay was involved in charitable works, especially through Caritas Jerusalem, of which he was the delegate. He also worked to help the poorest in a very concrete way, by redistributing the surpluses from various kitchens. He was also responsible for the creation of children's clinics in Bethlehem.

Fr. Tournay was a teacher at the École Biblique for 46 years (1946-1992). In addition to the Akkadian and Sumerian classes, which he interrupted when Marcel Sigrist arrived in 1975, he focused on wisdom literature and, above all, on the Psalms. He was in charge of translating the Psalms for the first Jerusalem Bible, and was assisted in this by Raymond Schwab, a poet of Jewish origin. The translation published in 1950, the result of a very careful study of the richness of Hebrew poetry, is recognized as one of the best ever done. He was then asked to provide a version adapted for the sung liturgy, which he did in 1954 with the help of the PP. Gélineau and Chifflot. However, he never abandoned the Prophets, on which he published until 1997. His latest work, Seeing and Hearing God with the Psalms, or the prophetic liturgy of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Paris, Gabalda, 1988), synthesizes his research on the Psalms and those on the Prophets.

Tournay was naturally indicated to publish the great commentary on the Song of Songs on which André Robert had worked until his death. This one appeared in 1963, Fr. Tournay having added a long comparison with the extra-biblical parallels received from the different ancient worlds. After various evolutions, his interpretation of the Song was summarized in a new book, When God Speaks to Men the Language of Love. Studies on the Song of Songs (Paris, Gabalda, 1982).
Fr. Tournay was also very interested in the translation of the Pater's 6th request. He lectured and published articles on the subject, and tried to persuade various bishops to change the translation so that one could no longer have the impression that it was God who was the cause of temptation. He finally received the approval of the French Bishops' Conference in 1998.

In 1968, Tournay became the director of the Bible Review, and remained so for 25 years. In addition, he was Director of the School for three terms from 1972 to 1981.

In 1972, he was promoted to Master of Theology by the Master of the Order. That same year, he received the National Merit Medal, before being decorated with the Legion of Honour nine years later. In 1994, the University of Fribourg awarded him an honorary doctorate for 50 years of scientific activity and charitable efforts.

He died at the Bible School on November 25, 1999. The funeral mass was presided over by Bishop Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

ISAAR (CPF), 2nd Edition, 2004.

Entry prepared on November 2018

• MURPHY O’CONNOR, Jerry, « In Memoriam : P. Raymond-Jacques Tournay », in Nouvelles de Jérusalem, n° 76, janvier 2000
• VESCO, Jean-Luc, « Livres poétiques et sapientiaux », in L’Ancien Testament. Cent ans d’exégèse à l’École biblique, Paris : Gabalda, 1990, p. 159-181
• GONÇALVES, Francolino, o.p., « Les Prophètes », in L’Ancien Testament. Cent ans d’exégèse à l’École biblique, Paris : Gabalda, 1990, p. 128-140

Author(s) : Marie-Alpais Torcheboeuf.