Jean Carmignac

Jean Carmignac
Jean Carmignac
Born	1914
Died	1986
Nationality	French
Occupation	biblical scholar

Abbé Jean Carmignac (1914–1986) was a French biblical scholar who founded Revue de Qumran in 1958.^[1]

The Jean Carmignac Association

“ The Gospels are historical documents, almost news reports, given first hand. ” Jean Carmignac

"I got used to the Hebrew used at the time of Christ in studying the Dead Sea scrolls. And very naturally, I recognized transparently in the Greek of St. Mark this same Hebraic language, which was simply transposed into Greek

The technical research arrived at proofs which seem decisive and which apply equally to the Gospel of Matthew and to the documents used by St. Luke"

But then the consequences and the conclusions go very far : the Gospels were therefore composed a lot earlier than is usually said. They are a lot closer to the facts. They have a historical value of the first order. They contain the testimonies of the disciples who followed and heard Jesus.

"These scientific arguments should strengthen the Christians and draw the attention of the unbelievers. But they disturb the dominant theories and thus they will be bitterly criticized.

So as to present publicly only irrefutable demonstrations, for twenty years I was engaged in meticulous research, which was set forth in large technical books.

But I was asked to not just think of specialists, and to make known to the wider public the results of these twenty years of work. That’s why I wrote a little book : The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels * only pointing out the principal proofs and what flows logically from them. Jean Carmignac

• Ed. F.-X. de Guibert, Paris 1984

The future of Christianity is founded on the question of truth “ Cooperator of the Truth ”: I chose this phrase from the third letter of St. John as an Episcopal motto because in our present world the question of truth has almost disappeared, and because if that disappears, everything disappears . (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger)

Remember what Jean Carmignac has said above : …" strengthening the faith of the Christians and drawing the attention of the unbelievers, [...] These arguments “ disturb the dominant theories and thus they will be bitterly criticized ”...

If these arguments had only been bitterly criticized by his fellow scholars – which is of the nature of scientific debate – our association would never have seen the day. But the magnificent work of Jean Carmignac and of those who share his conclusions, in particular the work of another researcher, Claude Tresmontant, were treated with such virulence, with such contempt, that it seemed necessary to many to oppose the effort to bury them. One of those who hold the “ mainstream theories ” is a good example of the attitude : he wished that the positions of Jean Carmignac “ rest in the cemetery of dead hypotheses ” adding : “ I should have placed a few shovelfuls of earth on their tomb ”! But let’s not stay too long on that sad page, which is beginning to fade anyway. The important thing is the bulk of scientific research of all orders which, little by little, are seeing the light of day, and which support and strengthen the conclusions of the great ones who came first. Facing the heavy constructions of the “mainstream theories”, they are interested in facts, in objective data, in what really happened… This Research and work is often poorly or little passed on to our contemporaries because of habits acquired, careers underway, fashions and also, we must recognize, the bad will of the majority of the media who do not want to spread what would strengthen the faith of the Christians and could draw the attention of the unbelievers… But when an hypothesis touches the truth totally, or even by one facet or another, the truth can then leave behind its prison walls, no matter how thick: the Scriptures of the Judeo-Christians are recognized as having been written in Hebrew by a growing number of scholars, in particular Jewish scholars. One such, a specialist of Flavius Josephus concluded that the “ Gospel of John is very close to the historical reality ”, etc. The ambition and the mission which our association has given to itself is to make heard these voices : that of Carmignac and of those researchers who, in all this following the mind of Carmignac, with rigorous reflection and intellectual honesty, see their labours hidden at least in part under a bushel, even though these works can strengthen the faith of the Christians and draw the attention of the unbelievers.

References

• http://www.abbe-carmignac.org/