Born January 13, 1915. Died August 25, 2000.
Education and professional career
- 1943: Agrégé des lettres
- 1943-1945: Teacher at the Lycée de Monaco
- 1946-1951: Research fellow at the CNRS, specialized in Semitic languages, Eastern Christian and patristic languages and literatures at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and the École des Langues Orientales Anciennes of the Institut Catholique de Paris
- 1948: Graduate of the École Pratique des Hautes Études
- 1951: Editorial secretary of the Revue de l'Histoire des Religions,since which date he has been its director.
- 1952: Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, IVth Section ("Sciences historiques et philologiques")
- 1952-1974: Chair Hebrew and Aramaic
- 1957: Director of Studies, holder of the new chair Christianismes orientaux, in the Vth Section ("Sciences religieuses") of the École Pratique des Hautes Études
- 1963: Doctor of Letters
- 1977: Professor at the Collège de France, holding the chair Christianisme et gnoses dans l'Orient préislamique (Christianity and Gnoses in the pre-Islamic East), and at the same time Director of the Cabinet d'histoire des religions (History of Religions Department)
- 1983: Ordinary member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
- 1991: Member of the International Committee in charge of editing the Coptic Gnostic manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi. Associate Editor of the Coptic Encyclopaedia (New York, 1991, 8 vols.)
