The Bones of Qumran

In “Whose Bones?” published in our previous issue, authors Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel described their excavation last summer of a skeleton inside a tomb at Qumran, near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. They dismissed as “sensational” claims made by a University of Hartford press release that the skeleton might be the remains of John the Baptist or the Teacher of Righteousness (the leader of the people who wrote the scrolls). That press release quoted Richard A. Freund, professor at the University of Hartford and a colleague of Broshi and Eshel at the Qumran dig. Here is Professor Freund’s response.—Ed.