François (Paul in religion) Dreyfus, o.p. (FD)

• Father Paul

Born in Mulhouse to a reluctant Jewish family, François Dreyfus was preparing for the entrance exam to the Ecole Polytechnique, where he was admitted in 1935. On his release in 1939, he was mobilized and then taken prisoner. It was in captivity that he read the Bible again, received Catholic catechesis and was baptized in 1941. It was also in prison that he met the famous Dominican Vicars and Congar. This probably explains why, at the end of the war, François Dreyfus chose to join the Dominican order. He took the habit in 1947 at the convent of Saint-Jacques in Paris and received the name of Paul.

First approached to accompany Fr. Bruno Hussar in the foundation of the Maison Saint-Isaïe in Jerusalem, Fr. Dreyfus was finally assigned to the École Biblique, where a New Testament teacher was needed. Living in East Jerusalem, Fr. Dreyfus had to bear the false name of Trevoux for several years. Returning to Le Saulchoir in 1957, he completed his thesis there and taught the New Testament for ten years.
Only then did he return to the EBAF, which was responsible for the reviews for the Bible Review; his field then became biblical theology. He opened up his fields of research very widely, until the publication, in 1984, of his best-selling book Jesus did he know he was God?

Paralyzed by an attack in 1990, he went to the brothers of Saint-Jean, in Rimont, where he died in December 1999.

ISAAR (CPF), 2nd Edition, 2004.

Entry prepared on November 2018

MURPHY O’CONNOR, Jerry, Obituaire : P. François-Paul Dreyfus, supplément à la Lettre de Jérusalem, 2000

Author(s) : Marie-Alpais Torcheboeuf.