Rene Van de Walle

Rene Van de Walle was an Old Testament Scholar who was the past President of the Society for Biblical Studies in India.
In a pioneering article entitled A comparative study on Psalm 139 and hymn IV, 16 of Atharvaveda Van de Walle brought out striking similarities between the two texts.
Studies
R. Van de Walle was born in France and was raised in Belgium. His nephew, Erik Breye writes that Van de Walle studied in Izegem and joined the Jesuits in Drongen in 1945 and came to India and studied philosophy at Shembaganur, Tamil Nadu and at the Minor Seminary in Ranchi. In 1957 he was sent to the De Nobili College, Pune for theological studies. He then became an Assistant at St. Mary's Cathedral in Ranchi.
Later, Van de Walle was sent to the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome where he pursued postgraduate studies in Old Testament.
Continuing his stay in Rome, Van de Walle registered as a doctoral candidate in the same Institute and worked out a research proposal entitled The Murmuring of the Jews in the Desert. However, Van de Walle was soon recalled to India to take up responsibilities at the Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. Erik Breye reasons that his uncle Van de Walle could not complete his doctoral programme due to his heavy teaching responsibilities coupled with a desire to help his pupils leaving no free time.
Van de Walle was associated with the Bible Society of India in its Hindi and Marathi common language translations.
After decades of teaching in the Seminaries in India, he finally left in 1989 to Belgium.

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