Queries & Comments

008

SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE

Shanks Shares Sentiments

Cancel my subscription!

Actually, don’t cancel it. I just wanted to see what it felt like to write those words after 43 years of having them written to me.

I did, however, want to write my first ever letter to the editor of BAR and share a couple of thoughts regarding the wonderful tribute issue of BAR (March/April/May/June 2018) in my honor.

First, several people have noticed the lack of reference to my wife in this issue. For the last 53 years I have been married to my darling Judith, but we do have different interests. We also have two daughters—Elizabeth and Julia—and two grandchildren—Nancy and Charlie—each with his or her own interests and accomplishments.

Second, BAS President and BAR Publisher Susan Laden notes in her BAR history (“Raising the BAR,” BAR, March/April/May/June 2018) that, “In 1994, I left the [Biblical Archaeology] society … Almost 10 years later, Hershel asked me to come back.” This conceals a bitter disagreement that persists to this day: Sue claims that I fired her; on the contrary, I claim that she quit.

In any event, I kept up with her when she left—and I badly needed her. Eventually after nearly 10 years, I convinced her to come back. We have not had a serious disagreement before or since. And I don’t know what got into her to quit—and then deny it! Still, it is she who is largely responsible for BAR’s success.

Third, and perhaps most poignantly, toward the end of last year, when I decided to retire, I was 87 years old, and fortunately we had someone who could fully take my place—Bob Cargill. So we announced my retirement as of the end of the year. Everything went smoothly. Then something else happened quite independently. I was diagnosed with a mild case of dementia.

What a horrible name for a disease. With my wife’s help, I did find a much better name for the disease: cognitive impairment. But it was not much better, and it was impossible to remember—or cure! It is one of a number of mental diseases that especially attack older people—Parkinson’s disease, etc. Fortunately, my case is mild, and I can function relatively normally. Still, I think it important to share this detail of my life in an effort to exercise some control over this disease with which I shall now wrestle in my retirement.

Finally, it is natural that in a project (Special Double Issue of BAR) as large and complicated as this, I would expect to find minor aspects that I would have wished had been handled somewhat differently. But there aren’t!

Releasing Ancient Writings

A big thank you to Hershel Shanks for putting on the pressure to make the scrolls accessible to all of us (Martin Abegg, Jr., “Hershel’s Crusade No. 1: He Who Freed the Dead Sea Scrolls,” BAR, March/April/May/June 2018). In the years ahead, may BAR continue to release ancient writings to us.

Analyzing the Evidence

I enjoyed the special issue honoring Hershel Shanks and very much appreciate his hard work through the years, as well as those who worked with him. BAR provides me, as it does others, with reference materials and helps keep me up to date on the opinions of the archaeologists, who are uncovering evidence, and Biblical scholars. I am grateful to Hershel for providing us with useful information that can help us understand what the evidence is telling us.

Sharing Archaeological Truth

Thank you for the wonderful festschrift issue honoring Hershel Shanks! Especially for the original statement of principles for BAR by Hershel Shanks (“In Their Own Words”), the careful history of BAR by Sue Laden (“Raising the BAR: The History of the Biblical Archaeology Society”), and the great analysis of “maximalists” and “minimalists” by William Dever 010(“Hershel’s Crusade No. 2: For King and Country: Chronology and Minimalism”). Some scholars and lay people might prefer it if archaeology proved every statement in the Bible to be true (“maximalists”), while a few others are influenced by postmodern skepticism and tend to believe that very few statements in the Bible are true (“minimalists”). Fortunately, Hershel Shanks and BAR have focused on seeking and sharing archaeological truth and letting the chips fall where they may. Again, thank you for this issue!

FUTURE BARS

Pledging Ongoing Support

I am an emeritus professor of music from the University of Wyoming, having retired way back in 1993. Although 90 years of age, I still co-teach a senior citizens string orchestra.

I have always been deeply interested in Israel and in its history and development over centuries—especially the House of Aaron. I have appreciated BAR magazine for a long time.

I look forward to Robert Cargill managing BAR’s growth in many ways. With 25 great-grandchildren and limited income, I can only financially support in a small amount, but that I will.

ENTHUSIASM FROM BEHIND BARS

BAR Transports Me

I love BAR! I am currently in prison but I have the world in my mind, thanks to BAR.

For decades, the Biblical Archaeology Society has been sending complimentary copies of BAR to various prisons across the country. Those who work with prisoners in correctional facilities understand the importance of this work.—B.C.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS CONNECTION?

Reader Remembers Father

I was fascinated by the story “He Who Freed the Dead Sea Scrolls” by Martin Abegg, Jr., in your special double issue of BAR. In early 1950s, my father, Rev. Alan J. Pickering, a Presbyterian minister, was a doctoral candidate at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He was featured as one of five scholars there on a fellowship in an article in the HUC Bulletin of October 1953 under the title “Christian Scholars study at HUC under Unique Interfaith Program,” an issue which he saved.

I remember him mentioning the Dead Sea Scrolls during my childhood almost as 077if he knew them well; certainly they must have been discussed by the HUC students as their discovery was only a few years before. Now I wonder whether HUC had closer connections to the scrolls at the time than most. Certainly Dad would have been highly interested as his doctoral study was in Semitic Languages and Literatures. As my father, a longtime BAR subscriber, is no longer living, I may never know if he had any special scroll connections, but your article was a nice tie-in to a past family memory.