Martin Abegg: Ben Zion Wacholder, Professor of Dead Sea Scrolls Studies

Martin Abegg, PhD (Faculty Page)

 

Department of Religious Studies, faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; School of Graduate Studies; (MA Biblical Studies)

abegg@twu.ca

604-888-7511 ex. 3124

 

Research Interests:

Biblical Hebrew; Dead Sea Scrolls; Texts and versions of the Hebrew Bible

 

Education:

B.Sc. (Bradley), MPhil (Hebrew Union), PhD (Hebrew Union)

Martin was born in 1950 to Barbara and Martin (Jerry) Abegg in Peoria, Illinois. His mother was a housewife and sometime P.E. teacher while his father was a college professor and professional engineer. (Martin, Sr. retired from Bradley University [Peoria IL] in 1993 after 46 years, the last 22 as the University’s President.). Shortly after graduating from Bradley (BS in Geology, 1972), Abegg moved to Seattle, WA, to manage an industrial supply outlet and marry Susan Hemminger—whom he met while on a backpacking trip in the Olympic Mountains.

A Sunday School teaching responsibility in the late 70’s led to a few language classes and finally a degree from Northwest Baptist Seminary, in Tacoma, WA (MDiv 1983).

After two years of teaching Hebrew at the seminary and one year of pastoring a struggling church on Vashon Island, WA, Abegg decided to pursue graduate work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1984).

It was at the Hebrew University that Abegg became acquainted with the Dead Sea Scrolls. He registered for a class on the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) in the fall of 1986, only to find that the professor, Emanuel Tov (current editor and chief of Scroll publication), had decided to investigate the biblical scrolls from the Qumran caves instead. Initial disappointment was overturned by Tov’s passion for the subject matter.

After returning to the States in 1987, Abegg completed his degree at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, OH (Ph.D. 1993). His dissertation was a critical edition of the War Scroll from Qumran Cave 1.

It was during his studies at Hebrew Union College that Abegg began his collaboration with Professor Ben Zion Wacholder. The record of this partnership is the four volumes of A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls; the first of which was instrumental in breaking the publishing deadlock in the fall of 1991.

After a three year teaching stint at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, IN (1992-95), Abegg moved to British Columbia where he is currently the Ben Zion Wacholder Professor of Dead Sea Scroll Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC . He is co-director (with Peter Flint) of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at Trinity Western University.

Additional publications include a collaboration with Michael Wise and Edward Cook: The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation(Harper, San Francisco, 1996). A revised and expanded edition of this translation was published in the fall of 2005. The fall of 1999 saw the release of The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible edited together with Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich. This latter is the first and, as yet, only publication representing all of the biblical materials from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the summer of 2003, The Dead Sea Scrolls Concordance I: The Non-Biblical Texts from Qumran(Brill), was published, the culmination of some fifteen years of study. He is currently working on volumes two and three of The Dead Sea Scrolls Concordance.

Abegg resides in Abbotsford, BC, with his wife Sue. They have two daughters, Stephanie (28) works for an engineering firm in Abbotsford and Jenny (27) and are alternately avid backpackers and climbers.

Memberships/Affiliations

• Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation Board of Directors
• Institute of Biblical Research
• Society of Biblical Literature
• Steering Committee, Dead Sea Scrolls Section

Awards

• Who’s Who in Biblica Studies and Archaeology
• Alumnus of the Year (2006), Northwest Baptist Seminary, Tacoma, WA .

Recent Publications

• “Retribution,” “Day of Visitation,” Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, (edited by Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. Vanderkam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) 767-70, 958-59. 
• Review of Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Journal of Semitic Studies 45 (2000): 374-75.
• “Apocryphon of Moses B: 1Q29; 4Q375-376; 4Q408,” “Mysteries: 1Q27; 4Q299-301,” “Hebrew,” “MiqsΩat Ma{asei ha-Torah,” “The War Scroll and Related Texts,” “Jewish Calendars,” “Jewish Liturgy—Qumran,” “4Q385-388, 390-391 Pseudo-Prophets” in Dictionary of New Testament Background (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000)
•  “4QMMT, Paul and ‘Works of the Law,” in The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape and Interpretation (Peter Flint, ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001) 203-16.
• “The Calendar at Qumran,” in Judaism of Late Antiquity: The Judaism of Qumran: A Systemic Reading of the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Alan J. Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton; Brill: Leiden, 2001) 145-172.
• Review of Qumran Cave 4, Psalms to Chronicles (Eugene Ulrich, Frank Moore Cross, et al.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001) in Journal of Biblical Literature 121 (2002) 162-64.
• “1QIsa and IQIsb: A Rematch,” in Bible as Book: The Hebrew Bible and Judaean Desert Discoveries (London: British Library & Oak Knoll Press, 2002) 221-28.
• “Concordance of Proper Nouns in the Non-biblical Texts from Qumran,” in Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series (Emanuel Tov, et al; DJD 39; Clarendon Press: Oxford, 2002) 229-84.
• Review of Kent L. Yinger, Paul Judaism, and Judgment according to Deeds,  Bulletin for Biblical Research 12 (2002), 311-14.
• Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts: Compiled and Tagged with Lemmas and Grammatical Information by Martin Abegg, version 2.0; Altamonte Springs, FL: OakTree Software, 2002
• “1QSb and the Elusive High Priest,” in Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov (eds. Shalom M. Paul, et al.;  Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003) 3-16.
• “The Covenant of the Qumran Sectarians,” in Concepts of Covenant in the Second Temple Period (ed. S. E. Porter and J. C. R. de Roo; JSJSup; Leiden: Brill, 2003) 81-97.
• Kaufmann Hebrew Mishna, Hebrew Mishna Corrected to the Kaufmann Codex with Grammatical Tagging by Martin Abegg, Altamonte Springs, FL: OakTree Software, 2003.
• Review of Qumran Cave 4.XXIII:Unidentified Fragments, by Dana M. Pike and Andrew C. Skinner, with a contribution by Terrence L. Szink, and in consultation with James VanderKam and Monica Brady. DJD 33. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002, Dead Sea Discoveries 11 (2004), 120-22.
• Jeremiah 1-28 for the Holman Standard Christian Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2004).
• Review of James H. Charlesworth, The Pesharim and Qumran History: Chaos or Consensus? Hebrew Studies 44 (2004) 280-282.
• “A Messianic High Priest in the Scrolls?” Mishkan 44 (2005): 43-51.
• “’And He Shall Answer and Say’- A Little Backlighting.” In Studies in the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, and the Septuagint Presented to Eugene Ulrich, ed. Emanuel Tov Peter W. Flint, and James C. VanderKam, 203-211. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
• Review of Simon J. Gathercole, Where is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5." Journal for the Study of Judaism 37, no. 3 (2006): 437-438.
• "Paul and James on the Law in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls." In Christian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. John J. Collins and Craig A. Evans, 63-74. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
• Samaritan Pentateuch: Morphologically Tagged by Martin Abegg and Casey Toews, and conforms to the Ben Hayyim Concordance, Altamonte Springs, FL: OakTree Software, 2006.
• Review of Eileen M. Schuller, The Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned? Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50 (2007), 389-90.
• Review of Jean Duhaime, The War Texts: 1QM and Related Manuscripts." Dead Sea Discoveries 14, no. 3 (2007): 392-395.
• Review of Benjamin Wold, Women, Men, and Angels: The Qumran Wisdom Document 'Musar leMevin' and its Allusions to Genesis Creation Traditions.Bulletin for Biblical Research 17 (2007), 336-337.
•  The Dead Sea Scrolls Biblical Manuscripts: The Biblical manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited and tagged by Martin Abegg, Altamonte Springs, FL: OakTree Software, 2007 Ben Sira: Hebrew text of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus): Transcribed from the Original MSS, Grammatical Tagging by Martin Abegg and Casey Toews, Altamonte Springs, FL: OakTree Software, 2007.
• Ben Sira: Hebrew text of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus): Transcribed from the Original MSS, Grammatical Tagging by Martin Abegg and Casey Toews, Altamonte Springs, FL: OakTree Software, 2007.
• “Halakhic Letter,” in The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. II 2007
• “Concordance.” in Hodayot (1QHa), ed. Eileen Schuller, 324-402. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XL; Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, Forthcoming.
• “Concordance.” in Qumran Cave 4. XXVII: Textes Arameens: Deuxiéme Partie (4Q550-4Q575a, 4Q580-4Q587), ed. Émile Puech, 525-561. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXXVII; Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, Forthcoming.
• Review of From 4QMMT to Resurrection: Mélanges qumraniens en hommage à Émile Puech, ed. ed. Annette Steudel Florentino García Martínez, and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, 357-375. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2006.
•  “Linguistic Profile of the Isaiah Scrolls,” in The Cave 1 Isaiah Scrolls (1QIsaa, 1QIsab) eds. E. Ulrich and P. Flint, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXXII; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2010.
•  “The Linguistic Analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls: More Than (Initially) Meets the Eye,” in  How to Read the Dead Sea Scrolls: Methods and Theories in Scrolls Research, ed. Maxine Grossman. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 48-68.
•  “Psalm 116: Ordeal, Rescue, and Reaction,” Pp. 162-72 in Interpreting the Psalms for Teaching and Preaching, edited by. Herbert W. Bateman IV and D. Brent Sandy, 2010.
• “The Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Hebrew Syntax,” in Celebrating the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Canadian Collection, edited by Jean Duhaime, Peter Flint and Kyung Baek, 2011.

 

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