André Dupont-Sommer
Encyclopedia
André Dupont-Sommer was a French
semitologist.
He specialized in the history of Judaism around the beginning of the Common Era
, and especially the Dead Sea Scrolls
. He was a graduate of the Sorbonne and he taught at various institutions in France including the Collége de France (1963-1971) where he held the chair of Hebrew and Aramaic.
Dupont-Sommer became interested in the Dead Sea scrolls not long after they were discovered. His first article on them was published in 1949. Writing in French he soon published an overview of the scrolls, Aperçus préliminaires sur les manuscrits de la Mar Morte, which was translated into English in 1952. He was a strong advocate of the Essene connection with the Dead Sea scrolls and in this work he argued for the Essene origin of Christianity. Although his ideas about Christianity were not taken up by the scholarly community, his writings contributed to a better understanding of the scrolls.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
semitologist.
He specialized in the history of Judaism around the beginning of the Common Era
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, and especially the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
. He was a graduate of the Sorbonne and he taught at various institutions in France including the Collége de France (1963-1971) where he held the chair of Hebrew and Aramaic.
Dupont-Sommer became interested in the Dead Sea scrolls not long after they were discovered. His first article on them was published in 1949. Writing in French he soon published an overview of the scrolls, Aperçus préliminaires sur les manuscrits de la Mar Morte, which was translated into English in 1952. He was a strong advocate of the Essene connection with the Dead Sea scrolls and in this work he argued for the Essene origin of Christianity. Although his ideas about Christianity were not taken up by the scholarly community, his writings contributed to a better understanding of the scrolls.