New Hope for the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls

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At long last, significant progress is being made to assure publication of the substantial batch of unpublished Dead Sea Scroll texts.^a And we may soon learn just how substantial this batch is; finally, after more than three decades, a complete catalogue of the unpublished Dead Sea Scroll texts is being prepared.

Unfortunately, the good news is as difficult to ferret out as gross negligence. And publication team editors manage to sound defensive and even offensive while simultaneously taking major forward-looking steps.

For example: Time magazine managed to find and interview the scroll editor who, it is widely reported, controls the biggest and most important lot of still-unpublished texts—J. T. Milik, a Polish scholar and former Catholic priest who has lived in Paris for many years. Despite worldwide coverage by major international media concerning the unpublished texts, Time alone was able to get to Milik.¹ It triumphantly referred to him as “elusive.” When Time finally tracked him down, this is what Milik said—“unrepentantly,” as Time characterized it: “The world will see the manuscripts when I have done the necessary work.”

Yet almost simultaneously the hitherto recalcitrant Milik was giving up publication rights to major unpublished texts and transferring them to senior American and Israeli scholars.

Since BAR has been regularly complaining about the slow progress of publication for more than four years, we would have expected someone—the chief editor of the scroll publication team, Professor John Strugnell, or the head of Israel’s Department of Antiquities, General Amir Drori—to make a proud announcement of this welcome development and so advise us.

We first learned of the transfer, however, in a letter from Magen Broshi, curator of the Shrine of the Book and a member of Israel’s Dead Sea Scroll oversight committee, who simply gave us the names of the scholars to whom the transfer was made (see letter in Queries & Comments, in this issue), without telling us what documents were transferred or the share of Milik’s total lot this transfer represented.

By a last-minute press change, we managed to get Broshi’s information into our last issue. It took a trip to Jerusalem to learn that the texts Milik has transferred are among the most significant and important of all the known unpublished texts: the Damascus Documents to Professor Joseph Baumgarten of the Baltimore Hebrew University; the apocryphal work Jubilees to Professor James Vanderkamm of North Carolina State University; and the texts from Nahal Se’elim from the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135 C.E.^b) to Professor Jonas Greenfield of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Whether this transfer is enough or whether Milik still has more than any one person can handle depends on the extent of Milik’s uncompleted assignment; this remains unknown. In a single conversation with chief editor Strugnell, he claimed that Milik’s transfer to the three scholars constituted one-quarter, one-half and two-thirds of the unpublished texts assigned to Milik. What the correct number is cannot be determined. We can say, however, that the transferred texts represent a substantial portion of the texts outside scholars most urgently want to see.

Moreover, we may soon know the extent of the unpublished texts. A full, detailed catalogue is being prepared. Again this good news was hard to come by. When the basic information had been pieced together from several sources, Strugnell confirmed that an unnamed young scholar had been assigned this task, that the catalogue would be completed next June or July and that it would be approximately 200 pages long. Furthermore, he agreed that the new catalogue would be made public. Until now, only an old, outdated catalogue that Strugnell says omits “1/3 of the plates and 1/2 of the negatives” has been compiled and it has been kept under lock and key, although purloined copies have been circulating.

It is clear that some way must be found to supply the public forthrightly and openly with information about what is and is not happening—the good 056and the bad—with the unpublished scrolls. Currently, it is as difficult to get the good news as it is the bad. And confusion is often the order of the day.

The fiasco with the so-called timetable for publication is a case in point. Promised a timetable by Israel’s Director of Antiquities, we were chagrined when he released only an unsigned “Suggested Timetable.” When we asked whose “suggestion” it was, who agreed to it, what documents it covered and what would happen if the timetable’s dates were not met, we were told that no other information would be supplied. At the same time, chief editor Strugnell was saying that the dates in the timetable—the latest of which is the end of 1996—were only “intelligent guesses” and that he hoped to have work completed by the year 2000, with another three or four years until the results were actually available in print. Is it any wonder that BAR branded the timetable a hoax and a fraud?

Moreover, it is high time that those in what Columbia University professor T. H. Gaster calls “the charmed circle” stop treating outsiders—the public and complaining scholars—with disdain, disparagement and contempt. Time and again, when I have privately mentioned the complaints of particular scholars, the reply has been dismissive and disparaging: “He can’t read a line of Hebrew”—this of scholars who have themselves published important Hebrew texts. This private disparagement is matched with public name-calling. Magen Broshi brands a complaining scholar “a very minor scientist.” J. T. Milik derogatorily refers to the “unhealthy curiosity” of outside scholars who want access to unpublished texts. John Strugnell says requests of outside scholars for access to unpublished texts are based on their “vanities” and a desire for “ego trips.”

Which brings us to the most difficult issue of all—the question of access to unpublished texts by outside scholars. While substantial progress is being made in the transfer of publication assignments, the team of editors remains obdurate—at least in principle—on the issue of access to unpublished texts by outside scholars. We say “in principle” because requests for access are likely to be granted more generously in face of the worldwide spate of unfavorable publicity the team of editors has received on this issue.

In the past, some members of the team have been much more generous than others in granting access to outside scholars. Professor Eugene Ulrich of Notre Dame University says he has granted all requests except one, and that one was from a scholar who did not meet his standards. He denied the substandard scholar’s request simply by failing to respond. Strugnell says this is the way it is done—by not responding. Since Milik does not respond to correspondence, presumably everyone who has requested access of him fails to meet his standards, Strugnell acknowledges.

After three decades, none of the arguments for denying blanket access to the unpublished texts to outside scholars has validity—certainly not the justification some scholars gave Time magazine: “Without the analysis of seasoned experts, outsiders would misunderstand what they read.”

Another argument given for denying blanket access is that the fragile fragments might crumble if dropped or picked up too frequently by inexperienced hands. The argument, however, does not apply to photographs of the texts. And that is what scholars primarily use. (Milik hasn’t been to Jerusalem in decades to see the originals.)

In the end, it comes down to what the “charmed circle” calls its “scholarly rights”—the right of each scholar personally to decide who may see a text he is preparing for publication—even if he’s had the assignment for 35 years. The New York Times has called this “greed for glory.” But it is something more personal, almost possessory. In attempting to explain it, one member of the team of editors asked me if I had narcotics or military hardware in my bedroom in Washington. When I replied in the negative, he asked whether I would allow everyone who wanted it to have access to my bedroom to determine the truth of my denial.

At best, it will be years before the remainder of the texts will be published. In the meantime, outsiders will continue to complain if denied access. At least two sets of photographs of all Dead Sea Scroll texts—both published and unpublished—have been deposited in the United States for security reasons. But the agreements with the depositaries—the Institute of Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont, California, and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati—forbid their giving access to outside scholars. One prominent HUC scholar has written his administration that this restriction is no longer binding because of the selective access given to outside scholars by members of the publication team.

Another set of photographs of all unpublished texts will soon be deposited in Oxford University’s Centre for Hebrew Studies, pursuant to an agreement providing funding for research. One of the governors of the center is Geza Vermes, a distinguished Dead Sea Scroll scholar who has for years bitterly complained of the denial of access to unpublished Dead Sea Scroll texts. Others involved in funding the Dead Sea Scroll research find the lack of access to unpublished texts offensive. The team of editors can hardly be unaware of this. Whether the editors will in the end grant blanket access is still questionable. But the editors surely know that they may deny access in particular cases only at their peril.

The adverse publicity that has recently descended on the team of editors and Israel’s Department of Antiquities is indeed unfortunate. It can be avoided in the future if the public is openly and forthrightly kept abreast of developments—good and bad—if transfers of publication assignments continue to be made so that all texts will be published in the next few years, if there is strict monitoring to insure that the transfers continue to occur, if satisfactory progress toward completion continues to be made by the new editors and if, in the meantime, outside scholars are given access to unpublished documents for their own research.

That the team of editors is composed of distinguished and conscientious scholars no one would deny. Their accomplishments have been very considerable. A prominent Polish scholar, Dr. Zdzilaw Jan Kapera, has called me to task for failing to recognize that 074Milik has published more Dead Sea Scroll texts than any other scholar.² This is true. And for this Milik deserves our praise. But it is also true that he had the most important and largest lot of unpublished documents and, until recently, has treated the public contemptuously.

Similarly in the case of John Strugnell. He is a brilliant scholar with major accomplishments. Since 1987, when he became chief editor, he has attempted to encourage the reassignment of unpublished texts by all team editors. But he has been obstinate on the issue of access and has fought for another 15 years and more before the world can see all the currently unpublished texts.

It has been Antiquities Director Amir Drori’s difficult task to attempt to negotiate more realistic deadlines with Strugnell. He has tried his best in a job which he took over only 16 months ago. Although he has made progress, he, like Strugnell, would prefer to work without public scrutiny.

But in the end the Dead Sea Scrolls are public treasures. As the worldwide publicity has demonstrated, the public is concerned that after more than 35 years we still don’t know what’s in many of them. And what’s worse, the scholars assigned to publish them won’t let others see them.

All this is changing—finally—for the better. Public support, rather than condemnation, is available—if only the scholars will be open with the public, proceed expeditiously with their work, reassign texts for publication so that all texts will be quickly available and, in the meantime, give outside scholars fair access to unpublished texts.

At long last, significant progress is being made to assure publication of the substantial batch of unpublished Dead Sea Scroll texts.a And we may soon learn just how substantial this batch is; finally, after more than three decades, a complete catalogue of the unpublished Dead Sea Scroll texts is being prepared. Unfortunately, the good news is as difficult to ferret out as gross negligence. And publication team editors manage to sound defensive and even offensive while simultaneously taking major forward-looking steps. For example: Time magazine managed to find and interview the scroll editor who, it is widely reported, controls […]