Dead Sea Scrolls Institute

Directors of the Institute

Dr. Martin G. Abegg, Jr.
Professor, Graduate Program in Biblical Studies. B.Sc. (Bradley); M.Div. (Northwest Baptist Seminary, Tacoma, WA); M.Phil., Ph.D. (Hebrew Union). Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Syriac. Director of the M.A. in Biblical Studies, Co-director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute and holds the Ben Zion Wacholder Professorship. more...

Dr. Peter Flint
Professor, Graduate Program in Biblical Studies B.A., M.A. ( Witwatersrand, South Africa); M.A., Ph.D. (Notre Dame). Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Philo. Co-director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute and holds the Canada Research Chair in Dead Sea Scrolls Studies. more...

 

Introduction

The Dead Sea Scrolls Institute provides important additional resources and scholarly support to the University's Graduate Program in Biblical Studies. The Institute sponsors regular symposia, in which leading scholars from around the world are invited to give lectures to students and to the public on the latest advances in scroll research.

John Collins of the Yale University Divinity School offered the inaugural address at the fall 1995 symposium. Martin Hengel of Tübingen University headed up an all-star roster of speakers at a special international symposium held in April 1999. Other speakers have included George J. Brooke, Daniel Falk, Timothy Lim, James Sanders, Eileen Schuller, Emanuel Tov, Eugene Ulrich, and James VanderKam.

The papers read at the Institute's symposia are edited by the directors Martin Abegg and Peter Flint and are published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. as Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. The first volume of this series, Eschatology, Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. by C. A. Evans and P. W. Flint), appeared in 1997. Five more volumes have followed with two currently "in the press."

The Canada Research Chairs Program has appointed Peter Flint, PhD as a Research Chair in Dead Sea Scrolls Studies. TWU joins UBC and McMaster in representing Canada's three chairs in the area of Religious Studies but is Canada's only tier one appointment. Most recently, Martin G. Abegg, Jr.,PhD, has been appointed to the Ben Zion Wacholder Professorship in Dead Sea Scrolls Studies. These latest appointments duly recognize more than 10 years of accomplishments by the faculty of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at Trinity Western University and support ambitious ongoing and future research.

Purpose

The purpose of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute of Trinity Western University is fivefold:

  1. To support scroll research among the Biblical Studies faculty at Trinity Western University;
  2. to foster serious study and dialogue among biblical scholars and scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls throughout the world;
  3. to offer popular lectures by visiting scholars to communicate the significance of the scrolls to the faculty and students of Trinity Western, as well as the general public;
  4. to provide support for Trinity's M.A. in Biblical Studies; and
  5. to publish both scholarly and popular studies arising from the various activities of the Institute.

Publications and Studies

The Institute's directors have played a significant part in making the scrolls available to both scholars and the public. Among their publications are The Dead Sea Scrolls Concordance I, Martin Abegg (Brill 2003), The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, edited by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, and Edward Cook (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) and The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, edited by Martin Abegg, Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999) comprise English translations of nearly all the biblical and sectarian manuscripts. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity by James VanderKam and Peter Flint (HarperSanFrancisco, 2002) puts them all in proper perspective.

In addition to Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature, the Institute also sponsors the Eerdmans Commentary on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first volume of fourteen, Liturgical Texts, by James Davila, appeared in 2000.

Martin Abegg and Peter Flint are two of the three Canadian editors in the Oxford University Press series, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert.

Also significant in furthering understanding of the scrolls is the substantial number of the masters theses written by the biblical studies graduate students have dealt with scroll topics.

We Believe

We believe that Evangelical Christian scholars should play a significant role in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The reason is clear: among these scrolls are found the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), as well as various writings that shed important light on the world of Jesus, the early Church, and the New Testament.

Further Information

General inquires regarding the Master of Arts in Biblical Studies may be directed to the Director of Admissions - School of Graduate Studies.

For further assistance with questions relating to course or thesis content, please contact Dr. Abegg, Assistant Director of the Master of Arts in Biblical Studies Program.