VanderKam Reneges

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In the high stakes world of Dead Sea Scroll texts, things are not always what they seem. Take Professor James C. VanderKam’s offer to let anyone see the unpublished texts of Jubilees recently assigned to him for publication.

When he told BAR that he would let “anyone” see his texts, we thought the offer was plain enough. We printed the offer under this headline:

“Major Breakthrough! VanderKam Says ‘Yes’ To Dead Sea Scroll Photographs.”^a

We quoted Professor VanderKam as follows:

“I will show the photographs [of the 069unpublished Dead Sea Scroll texts of Jubilees] to anyone who is interested in seeing them.”

Professor VanderKam does not dispute the accuracy of this quotation.

Word of Professor VanderKam’s courageous stand spread quickly. The North Carolina State University Alumni magazine featured VanderKam in a lengthy article. It cited the BAR headline about VanderKam’s having made a “Major Breakthrough.” VanderKam is given credit for “lay[ing] to rest 40 years of controversy.” The article noted VanderKam’s “willingness to share his photographs.” It quoted him approvingly: “I’ve shown these fragments to anyone who wanted to see them.” In the alumni magazine interview, VanderKam was even willing to criticize his scholarly colleagues who had withheld their texts: “I agree that more people should have had access to them even while others retained the official publication rights.”

At North Carolina State University, where he teaches, VanderKam became something of a local hero if not in Jerusalem, Cambridge and Paris. Professor Edwin C. Martin, the chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at North Carolina State decided to nominate VanderKam for the prestigious O. Max Gardner Award, given annually to the North Carolina State faculty member who has done the most in the service of mankind.

The editor of BAR was asked for, and gave, a recommendation supporting the nomination of Professor VanderKam for the award.

It was at that time that we decided to perform an experiment. Various members of the Dead Sea Scroll team of editors had predicted dire results if photographs of the unpublished texts were made available to everyone. We decided to see what would happen. Would the sky really fall, as Chicken Little predicted, if anyone could see the unpublished texts?

We had invited Professor VanderKam to Washington to lecture on the scrolls at the Smithsonian Institution. During the lecture, he projected slides of his Jubilee texts on the screen. We asked Professor VanderKam to borrow his slides so we could duplicate them; we would then offer them, at the small cost of duplication, to anyone who asked for them. The recipients could do anything they wanted with them.

To our utter surprise, the answer to our request was “No.” Professor VanderKam did not want his texts distributed in this way. What he meant all along, he said, was only that he would—literally—show the photographs to interested scholars. Presumably they would have to go to North Carolina for this purpose. He would not, he said, give them photocopies of the photographs. He provided us with a set of partially 070illegible photocopies—made on an ordinary Xerox or similar copying machine. It is obvious that no one would want to try to read the texts from copies like these when high resolution transparencies are easily available.

VanderKam did offer to make his texts available for a photographic edition of the unpublished texts, “provided the other scholars would [do the same].” Fat chance.

“What purpose would be served by making them available through BAR?” VanderKam asked, to explain his refusal. We were back to square one, having to justify why we wanted to see the texts and to explain what would be done with them. When we did so, we were refused.

In these circumstances, we felt constrained to withdraw the recommendation we gave to Professor Martin, at Professor VanderKam’s request, in support of the nomination for the O. Max Gardner Award.

Professor Martin explained VanderKam’s position: “He fears how it might affect his future career [if he made the photographs available to BAR].” In true philosophic fashion, Martin stated, “His career is a ‘good’ to be balanced here [against the good of releasing the photographs]. Jim wants to limit the manner in which the texts are distributed to minimize the potential harm to him. Whether this harm is real or imagined, I don’t know.”

It is well-known that VanderKam’s colleagues on the team of editors were unhappy with his decision to make his photographs available to anyone. J. T. Milik, from whom VanderKam received his assignment, called VanderKam’s decision “irresponsible.” As one prominent Dead Sea Scroll scholar commented to BAR, “What VanderKam did makes the other editors look like fools.” Both the Dead Sea Scroll team of editors and the Israeli oversight committee have adamantly refused to make available photographs of unpublished texts. VanderKam was clearly stepping out of line by offering to make them available to anyone.

In refusing to give BAR copies of his transparencies, VanderKam said he was “concerned at how it would be perceived by those who assign the texts.” Milik and chief scroll editor John Strugnell still have scores, if not hundreds, of precious texts that should be reassigned. They may be reluctant to do so if they think the scholars receiving the assignments will make the unpublished texts available to all comers.

Yet, as VanderKam urges, “Let’s get all the help we can. I think it should be a communal effort. I think it should have been thrown open to a wider group of people long ago.”

Another concern may be more personal. If VanderKam steps out of line, he may not get additional assignments so coveted by scholars around the world. In the meantime, VanderKam has been appointed chair of the Ancient Manuscript Committee of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Thus, in another way, he is being cut into an additional share of academic power.

In the high stakes world of Dead Sea Scroll texts, things are not always what they seem. Take Professor James C. VanderKam’s offer to let anyone see the unpublished texts of Jubilees recently assigned to him for publication.