Jean Margain (24 February 1931 - 15 February 2012) was a French Hebraist. He is known by his Semitic and Samaritan studies.
Margain got his Doctor of Arts in 1988 with his thesis Les particules dans le Targum samaritain de Genèse-Exode: jalons pour une histoire de l'araméen samaritain at Université Paris III.
In 1981, CNRS researchers Christian Amphoux and Jean Margain founded the Académie des Langues Anciennes (formerly called Session des Langues Bibliques), with branches in Montpellier, Saintes, Lille, Lyon and Digne.
Margain was Director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and president of the Sessions de langues bibliques (in 1988). He also was Director of studies at ÃÂcole Pratique des Hautes ÃÂtudes (EPHE), and Chair of Biblical and Targoumic Philology, from 1991 to 1996.