ND theologian lauds decision to put Dead Sea Scrolls on line | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › ND theologian lauds decision to put Dead Sea Scrolls on line ND theologian lauds decision to put Dead Sea Scrolls on line Published: August 28, 2008 Author: Michael O. Garvey The Israeli governments recently announced decision to make the Dead Sea Scrolls universally available on the Internet has been happily received by James C. VanderKam, Notre Dames John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology and a member of the Dead Sea Scrolls editorial committee. On Wednesday, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced its intention to digitally scan all of the scroll fragments with imaging technology which is likely to decipher previously illegible lines and letters of the ancient documents.Since their 1947 discovery in caves near the Dead Sea, the scrolls have been jealously guarded from all but a very few scholars. I wholeheartedly endorse this project,VanderKam said.I think it is interesting to compare the desire of the IAA to promote access to these fragmentarily preserved texts with the situation 15 to 18 years ago when access was a hotly debated point.At that time, the IAA was not a great advocate of open access.Times have changed!Great photographs of the scrolls and scrolls fragments have been available for years, but it seems as if these might be even better ones and more readily accessible. The scrolls, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek on parchment and some papyrus, are the oldest known text of nearly the entire Old Testament as well as writings by adherents to a religious sect contemporary with Jesus. A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1991, VanderKam is an editor of the definitive, 1,024-pageEncyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls.His research for the last 15 years has focused on the scrolls and related literature, and he is a member of the editorial committee that is preparing the editions of the remaining unpublished scrolls. His book,The Dead Sea Scrolls Today,has been translated into six languages. _ Contact: Professor VanderKam at 574-631-3421,_ " jvanderk@nd.edu ":mailto:jvanderk@nd.edu TopicID: 29286 Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn