Strata: Milestones: Peter W. Flint (1951–2016)

A great friend of the Biblical Archaeological Society (BAS), Dead Sea Scroll scholar Peter Flint passed away on November 3, 2016, at the age of 65. Peter was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 21, 1951, to Alwin and Edelweiss Flint. After graduate studies at the University of South Africa, Peter relocated to the United States to pursue doctoral studies in Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Notre Dame. His dissertation was titled The Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls and the Book of Psalms (1993) and was directed by Eugene Ulrich. Professor Ulrich himself said that this remains the most comprehensive and right-thinking study of the Psalter as illuminated by the Qumran scrolls.

After a two-year period as Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Southwestern College in Phoenix, Arizona (1993–1995), Peter moved to Trinity Western University (TWU) in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, in 1995 and continued as a much-beloved member of the TWU faculty until his death.

At TWU Peter played an integral role in founding the Master of Arts in Biblical Studies program in 1995. He also cofounded and directed the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute with me. In 2004 Peter was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Dead Sea Scroll Studies and Related Literature.