Lucien-Joseph (Bernard in religion) Couroyer, o.p. (LC)

• Father Bernard

Fr. Bernard Couroyer arrived at the Ecole Biblique after very solid studies in classical and modern literature, as well as the theological and philosophical training given at Le Saulchoir. In 1929, he passed the examinations of the Biblical Commission.

He had been called to the School by Fr. Lagrange to become a professor of Assyriology. But Fr. Dhorme, director at the time, asked him to dedicate himself more to Egyptology; he therefore followed Fr. Abel's Coptic courses and learned hieroglyphics by himself. After a stay in Cairo to supervise the work of the new convent, he resumed teaching Egyptology and Coptic in Jerusalem. From 1929, he also became a biblical Hebrew teacher, until Father Lemoine's replacement in 1952. In 1955, when Fr. Marmadji died, he even became an Arabic teacher!

A member of the Palestine Oriental Society of Jerusalem, he was elected president in 1938.
Over the years, he forged his specialization: "Bible and Egyptology".

He translated the book of the Exodus for the Jerusalem Bible. He devoted much of his time to the study of the relationship between Bible passages and Egyptian civilization.

Fr. Couroyer was also prosecutor of the convent from 1945 to 1952.

ISAAR (CPF), 2nd Edition, 2004.

Entry prepared on November 2018

SIGRIST, Marcel (dir.), Etudes égyptologiques et biblique : à la mémoire du P. Bernard Couroyer, Paris : Gabalda, 1997

Author(s) : Marie-Alpais Torcheboeuf.