VanderKam Reneges

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 Take Professor James C. VanderKam’s offer to let anyone see the unpublished texts of Jubilees recently assigned to him for publication.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.