Who Controls the Scrolls?

Even before the now-infamous anti-Semitic interview that chief Dead Sea Scroll editor John Strugnell gave to Israeli journalist Avi Katzman,^a Strugnell was locked in a bitter struggle with the Israel Antiquities Authority and its Dead Sea Scroll oversight committee for control of the unpublished texts.^b

Just prior to Strugnell’s anti-Semitic diatribe, the Israeli authorities had appointed Hebrew University Professor Emanuel Tov as co-chief editor of the scroll editorial team. Tov was to work independently of Strugnell and would not be subject to Strugnell’s authority.

When Shemaryahu Talmon of Israel’s oversight committee told me of the Tov appointment, I called Tov in Holland, where he is spending a sabbatical year. Typical of the efficient administration, the coordination, the facility in handling public aspects of Dead Sea Scroll matters, and the carefully defined lines of authority over Dead Sea Scroll publications, Tov denied knowledge of his appointment.

With the passage of time and the publication of newspaper reports, it became clear that Tov had indeed been appointed, although “final arrangements” had not yet been made.