BARview: Pierre Benoit, O.P. 1906–1987

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Père Pierre Benoit, one of the world’s most distinguished Biblical scholars and an expert on the archaeology of Jerusalem, died in Jerusalem on April 23 at the age of 81, following a long bout with cancer.

For more than half a century, he lived and taught at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in the city he loved and knew so well.

Père Benoit was an authority not only on Jerusalem and its archaeology, but also on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He served as chairman of the international publication committee responsible for publishing most of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He also wrote and published widely on theology.

Tall and devastatingly handsome, he had a delightful sense of humor and an almost impish grin. Despite the seriousness of his life’s work, there was a lightheartedness about him that made one immediately comfortable in his presence. Of course, his heavy French accent only added to his charm. I cannot believe he was unaware of the impression he made.

More than almost anyone I have known, he combined an unshakable and imperturbable faith with a skeptical, open-minded scientific interest in Biblical history. One realm seemed never to threaten the other.

His capacious soul could hold the certainty of faith as well as the uncertainty of scientific pursuit. He was willing to question everything, to consider any possibility no matter how extreme, to express doubts, to admit he could not find an answer or come to a satisfactory conclusion—and yet he was a man of serene and peaceful faith.

I knew Père Benoit only for the last 15 years of his life. I met him while writing a little book on the archaeology of Biblical Jerusalem called The City of David. I divide Biblical scholars and archaeologists from that period of my life into two groups: Those who looked down their noses at me as an outsider and those who welcomed me and willingly taught me. Père Benoit was one of the premier members of the latter group.

He lent Biblical Archaeology Review his support and enormous prestige from the very beginning. He was a member of the editorial advisory board from Volume I, No. 1 (March 1975) to the issue you hold in your hand. Not that he agreed with everything I published. He deeply disagreed, for example, with an early piece I wrote about Kathleen Kenyon^a. But unlike a few archaeologists who have vanished from the board from time to time because of their dissatisfaction with one or another article that appeared in BAR, Père Benoit respected my editorial freedom and appreciated my need for his support, even while feelingly expressing his disagreement.

The last time I had dinner with him, he was already wasted by cancer, although he fought to the end. Instead of that last visit, I like to remember an occasion with him a year earlier. Before I arrived in Jerusalem, I had been told that he was dying. I was delighted, however, to find him cheerful, optimistic, and seemingly in good health, working away in his room. I asked him if he had yet seen the reconstruction at the 005City of David, a special interest we shared. When he replied that he had not, I asked if he would like to go. He took up my offer with alacrity, and that afternoon we went together to the City of David.

He brushed aside my offers to supply a steady hand. After walking all over the surface of the site,^b we went to Warren’s Shaft.^c To my amazement he proceeded to walk to the bottom—well over a hundred steps. Coming up, I was huffing and puffing, but he seemed unfazed. Near the top, he decided we hadn’t adequately explored a still sealed opening to the shaft, so we partly retraced our steps.

Throughout my stay in Jerusalem, I was delighted to tell this story and spread the good news. His remission did not last very long, however.

Death makes us feel so helpless! What can we do? For those who share in the loss, I suggest a contribution to the library of the École Biblique. It is one of the world’s greatest collections for students of the Bible. Even in Jerusalem, it holds a unique place. Scholars from all over the world seek it out. Père Benoit was particularly proud of the recent remodeling of the library. But now it badly needs funds for acquisitions. Please send your checks in Père Benoit’s memory to the École Biblique, Jerusalem, or send them to us at 3000 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 300, Washington D.C. 20008, and we will forward them. Your gifts are tax-deductible. And they do honor to a rare human being and scholar whose like will not soon pass our way again.

An Appreciation by Gabriel Barkay

Père Benoit’s death is a deep loss to the archaeological community of Jerusalem, and especially to those concerned with the city’s rich and complex archaeology and topography.

After the crowded funeral ceremony in St. Stephen’s cathedral, Père Benoit’s coffin was laid to rest in the burial chapel of the Dominican Fathers at the École Biblique. This chapel is located underground, at the entrance to the most elaborate and most beautiful burial cave yet discovered from the time of the Davidic Dynasty (eighth-seventh centuries B.C.).^d There Père Benoit lies beside such giants in the research of Palestine as Roland de Vaux, Louis-Hugues Vincent, Felix Abel and others.

Standing there at his funeral, I recalled my first visit to this site, in November 1974, with my colleague and friend Dr. Amos Kloner; we were accompanied by Père Benoit, who received us with his usual helpful and cordial welcome. Even then, in our first visit to the site, we expressed our view—then only an impression—that the burial cave dated not to the Second Temple period as commonly thought, but to the First Temple period (to the Iron Age, in archaeological parlance). Père Benoit listened and smiled his fatherly and skeptical smile, as if to say, “Well, if you think that, it’s fine; it will be another view about Jerusalem’s history, which has seen so many ideas and interpretations emerge and disappear … ”

In the ensuing months, when Kloner and I recorded all the architectural details of the burial caves, Père Benoit followed our work with deep interest. Gradually, we saw his own view change; his skeptical and fatherly approach gave way to sincere interest in our conclusions and then to slow and gradual agreement with our revolutionary redating of the burial caves. In our frequent discussions of the dating of the caves, he went into the most minute details and raised questions typical of his penetrating and skeptical nature. He asked whether the innermost chamber with the sarcophagi was really original, whether the opening in the ceiling of one of the chambers was there in its first phase, and on and on. We were also interested in other burial caves in the vicinity, and Père Benoit often accompanied us to these sites as well.

As is well known, for more than 50 years Père Benoit followed and visited all the many archaeological expeditions in Jerusalem. During the excavations I directed in 1979 at Ketef-Hinnom, where we discovered two silver amulets with the priestly benediction in ancient Hebrew script, we were privileged to have a lengthy visit from Père Benoit. I vividly remember his interest, his penetrating observations and his intelligent questions. One of the questions he raised was whether the body of an adult could fit fully stretched out on the ancient burial benches. In order to check, we both measured them on the spot with our own bodies.

Père Benoit’s death is a loss to all who love Jerusalem and to the large group of scholars who are devoting themselves to uncovering its fascinating history. Père Benoit’s death leaves us bereft not only of a great scholar, but also of a kind, good-hearted person.

Père Pierre Benoit, one of the world’s most distinguished Biblical scholars and an expert on the archaeology of Jerusalem, died in Jerusalem on April 23 at the age of 81, following a long bout with cancer. For more than half a century, he lived and taught at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in the city he loved and knew so well. Père Benoit was an authority not only on Jerusalem and its archaeology, but also on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He served as chairman of the international publication committee responsible for publishing most of the Dead Sea Scrolls. […]