Secret Scrolls : Scholars Frustrated Over Limited Access to Dead Sea Discoveries

A new wave of frustrated anger is rising over the slow and sometimes closed studies of unpublished portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Jewish sectarian writings, produced about 2,000 years ago, were discovered in Judean desert caves near the Dead Sea in the late 1940s and early 1950s. They are generally considered one of the greatest discoveries of religious texts this century.

Most of the lengthy and important manuscripts have been published, providing scholars with the oldest existing versions of the Hebrew biblical books and valuable clues about an ascetic and apocalyptic Jewish sect that had strong differences with Jerusalem authorities.

But a Southern California biblical scholar, reflecting the frustrations of many colleagues, has protested what he called an “intolerable” situation in recent letters to the project’s director at Harvard, John Strugnell, and to Israel’s Department of Antiquities.

Makes Charges

Robert Eisenman, chairman of religious studies at Cal State Long Beach, charged that detailed information is lacking about what remains unpublished and that certain scholars selectively refuse access to materials in their charge.

“We think it is time for this charade to cease,” Eisenman wrote to Strugnell in a June 15 letter.

In an interview, Eisenman said, “We don’t want to see what they are going to publish. We are doing historical-textual research and we want to know what’s there. But no one gets a list of materials or gets access outside the inner circle, except for people who play ball or the graduate students of the scholars assigned the documents.”

Another scholar in the field, who did not want to wanted to be identified, said in a separate interview by telephone: “I find it hard to believe that a few scholars can stonewall the Dead Sea Scrolls and keep them from scholarly access for much longer. The situation has become an embarrassment in the field.”

Moderately Hopeful

Interviews with some scholars brought a mixed, moderately hopeful assessment.

But most also acknowledged that for various reasons the scholarly progress has been snail-paced compared to research on other manuscript discoveries, such as the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Library of apocryphal writings, also discovered about 40 years ago. Photos of the gnostic writings and translations of its 50 works, including the Gospel of Thomas, have been available for a decade or more.

Just how many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are unpublished is apparently undetermined. Strugnell, in a brief telephone interview, estimated about half, most of them fragmentary.

Biblical Archeology Review, a popularly written journal edited by Hershel Shanks in Washington, recently renewed its periodic campaign to end secrecy surrounding the research. It said that 14 volumes of translations and analysis have been published by Oxford University Press on the scrolls, with between 16 to 20 left to go.

French Scholar Criticized

The scholar who receives the most criticism is J. T. Milik of Paris, a former Catholic priest, who is believed to have the largest volume of still-unpublished materials, mostly biblical-style apocryphal works and treatises on the rules and philosophies of the community that used the writings at its Qumran monastery near the Dead Sea.

Scholars contacted this week agreed that Milik has a reputation for refusing to respond to requests by other scholars for access to his materials.

Shanks estimated in the May-June issue of Biblical Archeology Review that Milik has portions of nearly 50 documents. “The original documents are in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, but pursuant to scholarly convention, no one can examine them except Milik or someone who has Milik’s permission to do so,” Shanks said, adding that Milik has also refused to parcel out any of the works to other scholars.

Unaware of Shanks’ article and writing on behalf of himself and Philip Davies of Sheffield University in England, Eisenman formally requested Strugnell, the scrolls’ committee chairman, to prod Milik for access to certain documents important for their studies.

Member of Committee

“Milik, a member of your committee from its inception, has been controlling in Paris some of the most controversial material in the whole corpus and as is well known, shows no signs of relinquishing this or disseminating the materials . . . to a wider public any time soon,” Eisenman wrote March 16.

“As mature scholars at the height of our powers and abilities, we feel it is an imposition upon us and a hardship to ask us to wait any longer for . . . these materials 40 years after their discovery,” Eisenman wrote.

Strugnell defended Milik in an interview, saying that “Milik has published more than anyone alive. His next one on Jubilees is on its way.”

Critical of Eisenman’s letter as “inaccurate,” Strugnell said that both he and Milik have “frequently” made their work available to others.

Strugnell also alluded critically to one of Eisenman’s theories--that the “teacher of righteousness,” a revered leader of the Qumran sect mentioned in published scrolls, might be the same person as James the Just, who headed the Jerusalem church before being stoned to death in AD 62.

Admits He’s Alone

Eisenman admitted that he is alone in that thesis. In fact, relatively few scholars believe that the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal any contact with or influence by early Christians, who began forming churches after the Crucifixion of Jesus about AD 30. Many believe the Qumran community was destroyed and scattered when Roman forces defeated a Jewish uprising in AD 66-70.

“Strugnell feels that granting access to people who haven’t made serious contributions to the field is really not necessary,” one respected scholar said on condition that he not be identified.

On May 2, Eisenman wrote an appeal to Amir Drori, the new director of Israel’s Department of Antiquities: “Frankly, we are tired of being treated contemptuously. This kind of cavalier treatment . . . has been going on for 20-30 years or more.”

In addition to recommending that carbon 14 age-dating tests be applied to some fragments, Eisenman asked Drori to act “immediately” to release the materials to interested scholars.

Lawrence H. Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, said in an interview that Milik has material important to his studies. “I expect to be waiting a long time for it,” he said.

Gives Some Credit

Schiffman said he has mixed feelings about the current situation. He credited Strugnell, who became the publication team director after the 1987 death of Father Pierre Benoit, with encouraging a faster schedule and more distribution of materials to other scholars.

“We still face the problem of doing scholarship with large amounts of material still unavailable,” he said.

Publication of one of the largest collections of biblical scrolls is proceeding on schedule, according to Gene Ulrich, professor of Hebrew scriptures at the University of Notre Dame.

Ulrich is primarily responsible for three of four volumes, one of which already has been submitted for publication by Oxford University Press. That one has portions of the first five books of the Bible, including one of Exodus in the Samaritan tradition, and fragments of the Book of Isaiah, among other works.

He said they do not contain any startling variants from presently available manuscripts of biblical books.

Usually Grants Access

As for requests from other scholars to see the materials under his supervision, Ulrich said he has said yes to “virtually every everyone who has asked.”

Ulrich said another volume will be ready for publication in 1990, but he added that delays will probably occur because Oxford University Press is behind schedule--by three years in one case.

Strugnell said “yes” when asked if he thinks that all the unpublished material will be to the printers by the year 2000. “Maybe earlier,” he added.