ben zion wacholder

ben zion wacholder Latest

Sep 1 Blog

He Who Freed the Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1991, Martin Abegg, Jr., contemplated doing something unprecedented that had the potential to derail his academic career: publishing reconstructions of the Dead Sea Scrolls without the permission of the sluggish and secretive publication team.

Mar 5 Blog

Raising the BAR

By: Susan Laden

From humble beginnings, Biblical Archaeology Review has become the world’s most widely read Biblical archaeology magazine. See how it all began—with Hershel Shanks at the helm—and some highlights from the past 43 years.

Jul 31 Blog

Liberator of the Nag Hammadi Codices

By: Charles W. Hedrick

A cache of ancient Christian Gnostic texts was found near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945—two years before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Similar to the situation with the Dead Sea Scrolls, a monopoly of scholars held up the publication of the Nag Hammadi texts and would not permit anyone else to see them. The late Jim Robinson intervened, and by 1970 he had managed to free the Nag Hammadi Codices.

Dec 11 Blog

Dead Sea Scrolls History: Looking Back on the Last 75 Years

By: Megan Sauter

In an exclusive Bible History Daily interview, Dead Sea Scroll scholars Peter Flint, Martin Abegg and Andrew Perrin—directors of North America’s only research center dedicated to Qumran studies—reflect on some major moments in recent Qumran scholarship and pressing issues that lie ahead.

Jun 15 Blog

Ben-Zion Wacholder (1924–2011)

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Ben-Zion Wacholder, professor emeritus of Talmud and Rabbinics at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati who played a critical role in making the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to everyone, passed away in March at age 86. In 1989, Wacholder, along with his then-student Martin Abegg (now professor of religious studies at Trinity Western University in British Columbia), obtained a secret concordance of the unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls. The concordance consisted of photocopies of index cards on which every word in the unpublished scrolls was listed, including its location and the few words surrounding it...

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