Who Controls the Scrolls?

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Even before the now-infamous anti-Semitic interview that chief Dead Sea Scroll editor John Strugnell gave to Israeli journalist Avi Katzman,^a Strugnell was locked in a bitter struggle with the Israel Antiquities Authority and its Dead Sea Scroll oversight committee for control of the unpublished texts.^b

Just prior to Strugnell’s anti-Semitic diatribe, the Israeli authorities had appointed Hebrew University Professor Emanuel Tov as co-chief editor of the scroll editorial team. Tov was to work independently of Strugnell and would not be subject to Strugnell’s authority.

When Shemaryahu Talmon of Israel’s oversight committee told me of the Tov appointment, I called Tov in Holland, where he is spending a sabbatical year. Typical of the efficient administration, the coordination, the facility in handling public aspects of Dead Sea Scroll matters, and the carefully defined lines of authority over Dead Sea Scroll publications, Tov denied knowledge of his appointment.

With the passage of time and the publication of newspaper reports, it became clear that Tov had indeed been appointed, although “final arrangements” had not yet been made.

Strugnell’s dismissal as chief editor as a result of the anti-Semitic interview once again opened the issue of control, but without one of the most antagonistic players (at least from Israel’s viewpoint). This created the opportunity for the remaining forces vying for control to 053distribute power among themselves peacefully and cooperalively. That is what they have done—and the result is an administrative and bureaucratic monstrosity.

They all agree on one thing, however: Don’t release the photographs; maintain the monopoly.

Instead of a chief editor, the scroll publication team will now be headed by a troika of chief editors: Tov, who will be primus inter parses; Eugene Ulrich of Notre Dame University, who will represent the American interests; and Emile Puech, a French priest at the École Biblique in Jerusalem, who will represent the long-dominant Catholic clerical position on the scroll publication team.

None of the three is a member of the original scroll publication team. Ulrich inherited his position (and his unpublished texts) from Monsignor Patrick Skehan of Catholic University of America, who died in 1980. Puech inherited his position (and unpublished texts) from Father Jean Starcky, who died in 1988.

Tov’s appointment seems to be a special case. He was not even on the team of editors. I asked him if he was now on the team of editors. He replied that he was. I asked who appointed him. He said, “I don’t know.”

Hovering over this troika is another troika—the Israeli oversight committee—consisting of two Hebrew University professors (Talmon and Jonas Greenfield) and Magen Broshi, curator of the Shrine of the Book. The chairman, ex officio, of the oversight committee is Antiquities Authority director Amir Drori, assisted by Ayala Sussman, who often serves as spokesperson for the committee.

Who does what—or even what there is to do—remains unclear.