André Dupont-Sommer (23 December 1900,

Marnes-la-Coquette Marnes-la-Coquette () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. Located from the centre of Paris, the town is situated in the Hauts-de-Seine department on the departmental border with Yvelines between the Parc de Saint-Cloud and the ...

– 14 May 1983, Paris) was a French

semitologist Semitic studies, or Semitology, is the academic field dedicated to the studies of Semitic languages and literatures and the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples. A person may be called a ''Semiticist'' or a ''Semitist'', both terms being equi ...

. He specialized in the

history of Judaism Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...

around the beginning of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

, and especially the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

. 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.

Dead Sea scrolls

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 Mer 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.

Partial bibliography

Books

* ''Aperçus préliminaires sur les manuscrits de la mer Morte'', Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris, 1950 * ''Nouveaux Aperçus sur les manuscrits de la mer Morte'', Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1953 * ''Les écrits esséniens découverts près de la mer Morte'', Payot, 1959

Articles

* ''Une bilingue gréco-araméenne d'Aśoka'', Journal Asiatique 246, 1958, pp. 1–48 * ''Une nouvelle inscription araméenne d'Asoka découverte à Kandahar (Afghanistan)'' Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1966 110–
pp. 440–451
* ''Une inscription indo-araméenne d'Asoka provenant de Kandahar'', Journal Asiatique 254, 1966, pp. 437–465 * ''Une nouvelle inscription araméenne d'Asoka trouvée dans la vallée du Laghman (Afghanistan)'' Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Year 1970 114–
pp. 158–173
* ''Essénisme et Bouddhisme'', Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1980 124–
pp. 698–715

Sources

André Caquot André Caquot (24 April 1923 – 1 September 2004) was a French orientalist, specialized in Semitic history and civilisations and professor of Hebrew and Aramaic language at the Collège de France. In 1986, André Caquot was elected president of ...

, ''André Dupont-Sommer 1900–1983'' * Jacques Briend, in ''Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls'' Vol.1, Edd. Schiffman, Lawrence H., VanderKam, James C. (Oxford: OUP, 2000) people p. 220–221. * Die essenischen Schriftem vom Toten Meer. Unter Zugrundelegung der Originaltexte übers. von Walter W. Müller. Tübingen, Mohr, 1960. French orientalists University of Paris alumni Semiticists Dead Sea Scrolls Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1900 births 1983 deaths {{France-academic-bio-stub