Strata: David Noel Freedman (1922–2008)

David Noel Freedman, beloved friend, colleague, mentor, world-class Biblical scholar, human being par excellence, passed away on April 8, 2008, at age 85.

In his academic career that spanned more than 60 years, Freedman was equally a superb teacher, a producer of original research, a foremost editor of critical works and an entrepreneur. He wrote, co-authored, or edited 470 books and articles on Hebrew Bible, New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls and archaeology.

Freedman is perhaps best known as the meticulous general editor of the three-pronged Anchor Bible project (New York: Doubleday; now with Yale University Press), which consists of the Anchor Bible Critical Commentaries, the six-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary, and the Anchor Bible Reference Library. He was general editor of the series, which now comprises more than 90 books, for more than 50 years.

Freedman also edited the leading journals of his field: the Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL; 1955–1959), the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR; 1974–1978) and Biblical Archaeologist (BA; 1976–1982).