Dead Sea Scroll News
Second Scroll Editor Agrees to End Monopoly
Slowly but surely, the monopoly traditionally exercised by Dead Sea Scroll editors is being relaxed, if not actually broken. A second scroll editor, Eugene Ulrich of Notre Dame University, has agreed to allow any scholar to see photographs of the scrolls assigned to him for editing. Ulrich controls most of the still-unpublished texts of Biblical books. He is nearing completion of the work assigned to him, which he received as a subassignment from Frank M. Cross of Harvard University.
The first scholar to break ranks, as reported in Queries & Comments, BAR 16:03, was James C. VanderKam of North Carolina State University, who agreed to allow anyone to see photographs of the scrolls recently assigned to him. Ulrich, by contrast, would limit circulation of photographs of his texts to scholars.
Meanwhile, in a telephone interview from his Paris apartment, J. T. Milik, who has the bulk of the most sought-after documents, branded as “irresponsible” the decision to allow all comers to see photographs of unpublished texts.
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