This Festschrift is offered to C. Focant on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday and his retirement as Professor of New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology of the Universite catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve). Camille Focant has dedicated much of his scholarly career to the narratological approach of the New Testament, especially to the Gospel of Mark. In the present volume, twenty-seven friends, colleagues and former students agreed on writing innovative studies, mostly in French, on the theme of surprise in the Bible. The editors thus choose to focus on a literary technique or theme that had remained unexplored until now. The reader will find contributions on Old Testament books or passages (Genesis, 1 Samuel, Jeremiah, Judith) and on the four canonical Gospels, the Pauline Letters and 1 Peter. The volume is closed by two articles on Joseph and Aseneth and on Cherubin de Saint-Joseph.