Michael Langlois

On the occasion of the Qumran exhibition, journalist Céline du Chéné came to the National Library for the arrival of the famous Temple Scroll, loaned from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Laurent Héricher and I answered her questions on France Culture radio, aired on The March of Science on April 22.

You can directly listen to this interview by clicking on the following link:
France Culture, La marche des sciences, 22/04/2010
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French magazine Point de Vue dedicates four pages to the Dead Sea Scrolls! Journalist Pauline Sommelet came to the National Library and interviewed Laurent Héricher and myself. Here is how she begins her article:

Held between two glass plates, the stamp-sized manuscripts look like a collection of strange butterflies with irregular outlines. It takes a lot of imagination to realize that these paper coleoptera are in fact the oldest Bible manuscripts having reached us. The famous Qumran scrolls, accidentally found in the 1950s by Bedouins on the site of ancient Gomorrah, by the Dead Sea, are the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century.

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On the occasion of the Qumran exhibition at the National Library of France, French newspaper “La Croix” dedicates three pages to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Journalist Claire Lesegretain interviewed our team, and concludes her first article with the following words:

“Today, we question the number of texts initially considered sectarian,” Katell Berthelot concludes, wishing that scholars, who now have access to all manuscripts, “re-examine theories in light of everything.” Research is now being made on the calendar system, as well as liturgical and wisdom texts. Indeed, as Michael Langlois, another representative of this new generation of French-speaking Qumran scholars, says, “what seemed clear yesterday no longer is today.”

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French newspaper “Le Figaro” talks about the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the National Library. Journalist Claire Bommelaer concludes that

the scrolls exhibition, set in a historical context, deserves attention. If not for religious reasons, at least for aesthetical reasons: Philippe Maffre’s scenography, ocher and black, enhanced by huge plexiglass fragments hung from the roof, enables the visitor to feel part of the emotion felt by archaeologists sixty years ago.

Here is the entire article in PDF format: Read the rest of this entry »

On the occasion of the “Bible, Heritage of Mankind” exhibition, recently inaugurated at the UNESCO, I answered Bernard Coyault’s questions on the textual history of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) and the comparison of ancient biblical manuscripts and versions (the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Old Greek version called Septuagint, and so on).

This filmed interview is an integral part of the exhibition and, as such, will be viewed by all visitors interested in the Bible, its history, and its transmission. Here is the video: Read the rest of this entry »