Father Benoit, Editor of Dead Sea Scrolls, Dies
From Times Wire Services
JERUSALEM —
Father Pierre Benoit, 81, a biblical scholar and editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls, has died of cancer, a colleague said. The Dominican priest died Thursday at Jerusalem hospital, Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor said.
Benoit became editor of the unpublished fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1971. The scrolls, the library of a Jewish sect of the 1st century, were found in caves near the Dead Sea in 1947. Benoit headed a team of scholars who have published 70% of the 40,000 fragments found in one of the caves.
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