Dead Sea Scrolls Scandal—Israel’s Department of Antiquities Joins Conspiracy to Keep Scrolls Secret - The BAS Library
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Dead Sea Scrolls Scandal—Israel’s Department of Antiquities Joins Conspiracy to Keep Scrolls Secret

By Hershel Shanks

They will never do it. They will never do it because they cannot do it. They have failed—utterly and completely. The time for equivocation, explanation and apology has passed. It is now time to face the situation squarely and unflinchingly: The team of scholars assigned more than 30 years ago to publish the Dead Sea Scrolls will never publish them because they cannot! The task was simply too great. The team of editors has now become more an obstacle to publication than a source of information. And Israel’s Department of Antiquities and the Committee of Israeli scholars appointed to […]

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Endnotes

1.

See Geza Vermes and Pamela Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective (London: William Collins, 1977), p. 24.

2.

“Failure to Publish Dead Sea Scrolls is Leitmotif of New York University Scroll Conference,” BAR 11:05.

3.

See “Jerusalem Rolls Out Red Carpet for Biblical Archaeology Congress,” BAR 10:04.

4.

See “Jerusalem Rolls Out Red Carpet for Biblical Archaeology Congress,” BAR 10:04.

5.

See “Leading Scholar Calls For Prompt Publication,” BAR 04:01.

6.

In addition to the BAR articles cited, see “BARview: Israeli Authorities Now Responsible for Delay in Publication of Dead Sea Scrolls,” BAR 11:05, and “Antiquities Director Confronts Problems and Controversies,” BAR 12:04. See also “Debate on Enoch Stifled for 30 Years While One Scholar Studied Dead Sea Scroll Fragments,” Bible Review, Summer 1987.

7.

See “At Least Publish the Dead Sea Scrolls Timetable!” BAR 15:03.

8.

Yigael Yadin, The Temple Scroll (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985), p. 45.

9.

This presumably includes the Targum of Job, the Testament of Levi, the Testament of Napthali, a Midrash on the Book of Moses, Patriarchal stories, Pesher Genesis and perhaps others. However, Israel’s Department of Antiquities would not tell us what documents Milik has in the “Aprocrypha” category.

10.

See “No Theological Reasons for Failing to Publish Dead Sea Scrolls: Syrian Authorities Commended,” BAR 11:01.