Dead Sea Scrolls Interviews with Prominent Scholars by BAR Editor Hershel Shanks

Online, December 8, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The Biblical Archaeology Society, publisher of Biblical Archaeology Review, presents "Scholars on the Scrolls," a series of three informal yet intriguing interviews with five world-renowned Dead Sea Scroll scholars.

Host Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, chats with experts Weston Fields, George Brooke, Joseph Fitzmyer, James Charlesworth and Sidnie White Crawford about the famous leather, papyrus and copper scrolls discovered between 1947 and 1956 known collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls-perhaps the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century.

Each interview provides a glimpse into the important and fascinating work these scholars and those before them have put into studying the 972 Dead Sea Scroll texts over the past 60 years. Viewers will hear from Fr. Joseph Fitzmyer, a 90-year-old Catholic priest who worked hands-on with the scrolls in the 1950s and helped produce the valuable concordance of scroll transcriptions that ultimately allowed the texts to be released to the public.

In all three interviews, the scholars offer their personal perspectives on some of the more exceptional-and many times controversial-scrolls team members, including John Marco Allegro and John Strugnell. Find out from Weston Fields and George Brooke why Professor Allegro, one of the early editors of the publication team, was deemed a "maverick" and was publicly disparaged by five of his colleagues. Discover why Strugnell, a linguistics expert and later editor-in-chief of the project, was ousted from his post as well as his professorship at Harvard University in 1990. Follow the conversation with James Charlesworth and Sidnie White Crawford, where they discuss the role of the scrolls in the study of early Christianity.

To receive access to these three exclusive Dead Sea Scroll interviews by Hershel Shanks, become a member of the Biblical Archaeology Society at members.bib-arch.org. To learn more about each interview, contact Dorothy D. Resig or go to the following web address: members.bib-arch.org/videos/deadseascrollsinterviews.