LAGRANGE, MARIE JOSEPH

Outstanding Scripture scholar, b. Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain), France, March 7, 1855; d. Saint-Maximin (Var), France, March 10, 1938. After attending the minor seminary at Autun, Albert Lagrange studied in Paris, where he obtained a doctorate in law in 1878. He spent one year at Saint-Sulpice and then joined the Dominicans, receiving the habit in 1879 and the religious name Marie-Joseph at Saint-Maximin. Because the Dominicans were then expelled from France, he finished his studies at Salamanca and was ordained at Zamora on Dec. 23, 1883. He taught history and philosophy at Salamanca and Toulouse, and four years later (in 1888) he took up oriental studies at the University of Vienna. When he had been there two years, he was sent to Jerusalem to set up a Biblical school. He arrived in Jerusalem on March 10, 1890. The Ecole Pratique d'Études Bibliques opened its doors on November 15 of that year (see École biblique). His articles on inspiration (1895–96) in the Revue biblique, founded in 1892, showed him to be a rare combination of theologian and Biblical scholar. In 1900 a new project, the Études bibliques, was announced; Lagrange's own contribution (Juges, 1903) was the first to appear in this series.

A paper on the sources of the Pentateuch, read to him at an international congress held in Fribourg (1897), and the publication of his Toulouse lectures under the title of La Méthode historique (1903) led to such bitter criticism that in 1907 he turned to work on the New Testament; his S. Marc appeared in 1911. The mention of his name in a consistorial decree—a disciplinary measure and not a doctrinal censure—resulted in his leaving the École from September 1912 to June 1913. World War I (1914–18) obliged him to leave the Holy City, but in Paris he saw to the regular appearance of the Revue biblique. His commentaries on Romans and Galatians were written in this period.

His commentaries on Luke, Matthew, and John appeared at regular intervals (1921, 1923, 1925), and his most popular work, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in 1928. In 1935 ill health forced Lagrange to leave Jerusalem for France where he died three years later at the age of 83. He was buried at Saint-Maximin, but in 1967 his body was brought back to Jerusalem where it was interred in the Basilica of Saint Stephen.

A complete bibliography of Father Lagrange's writings contains 1,786 items. Some of his other important books are: Études sur les religions sémitiques (1903), Éclaircissement sur la méthode historique (1905 pro manuscripto ), La Genèse (1906 pro manuscripto ), La Messianisme chez les Juifs (1909), Synopsis evangelica graece (1926), Le Judaïsme avant Jésus-Christ (1931), Histoire ancienne du canon du NT (1933), Critique textuelle—La Critique rationnelle (1935), Critique historique—Les mystères: L'Orphisme (1937). His last article, entitled "L'Authenticité mosaïque de la Genèse et la théorie des documents," was completed on his deathbed.

The name Lagrange is rightly associated with the twentieth century revival of Catholic interest in the Bible and almost alone lifted Catholic Biblical studies out of mediocrity. The encyclical divino afflante spiritu (1943) mentions his École Biblique with approval.

Bibliography: f. m. braun, The Work of Père Lagrange, tr. r. t. a. murphy (Milwaukee 1963). f. l. cross, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London 1957) 779. m-j. lagrange, Père Lagrange, Personal Reflections and Memoirs, tr. h. wansbrough (New York, 1985).

[r. t. a. murphy/eds.]