Strugnell Calls Leading Scroll Scholar “Incompetent”

066

Harvard Professor John Strugnell, chief editor of the Dead Sea Scroll publication team, has called Geza Vermes, one of the world’s leading Dead Sea Scroll scholars, “incompetent.” In an interview published in Scientific American,^a Strugnell claimed that Vermes was not “competent” to examine an unpublished scroll because Vermes had not done serious work.

Vermes, a senior Oxford don, is the author of several books on the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the widely used Penguin edition, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, now in its third (1987) edition. His other books on the subject are Discovery in the Judean Desert (1956) and The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective (1977, 1981, 1982). In addition to his doctorate from Oxford, Vermes holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Durham. He is a fellow of the British Academy, editor of the Journal of Jewish Studies, a Governor of the Oxford Center for Hebrew Studies and has twice served as president of the British Association for Jewish Studies. He is also a senior author of the three-volume revised edition of Emil Schurer’s The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ and many other related books and scholarly articles.

The Scientific American interviewer was apparently incredulous at Strugnell’s charge: “A full professor at Oxford, incompetent?” Strugnell then conceded that Vermes had “other skills” and that if Vermes came to Jerusalem he, Strugnell, would “consider” his request to see an unpublished text.

Vermes may be incompetent, but Strugnell’s graduate students apparently are not. Strugnell regularly assigns unpublished texts to his own students to publish for their dissertations.

In the Scientific American story, Harvard’s Frank M. Cross, another member of the scroll publication team “attributed the reluctance [of the scroll editors] to publish to ‘a perfectionist streak’ among many of his colleagues.” The story quotes Cross: “Normally when you assign these things to a scholar it is assumed that he has a lifetime to complete his work.”

According to Strugnell, however, younger scholars who are now getting assignments are required to sign an agreement to meet a certain schedule. The Scientific American article, quoting Strugnell, states:

“‘Now [since I took charge] everyone we’re bringing in signs an agreement to adhere to a schedule,’ he says. Of course, he adds, it was only fair to write a grandfather clause to keep the old rules for the old workers—himself and three others [Cross, J. T. Milik and, perhaps, Emil Puech].

Harvard Professor John Strugnell, chief editor of the Dead Sea Scroll publication team, has called Geza Vermes, one of the world’s leading Dead Sea Scroll scholars, “incompetent.” In an interview published in Scientific American,a Strugnell claimed that Vermes was not “competent” to examine an unpublished scroll because Vermes had not done serious work. Vermes, a senior Oxford don, is the author of several books on the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the widely used Penguin edition, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, now in its third (1987) edition. His other books on the subject are Discovery in the Judean Desert […]