PREFACE This Issue of Dead Sea Discoveries Is Dedicated to John

DSD 13,1_F2_Preface_1-3 2/23/06 11:00 AM Page 1

PREFACE

This issue of Dead Sea Discoveries is dedicated to John Strugnell, a little belatedly, to mark his 75th birthday, which he celebrated in 2005. It also marks, even more belatedly, the fiftieth anniversary of his appointment to the international team of scholars entrusted with editing the Dead Sea Scrolls. John Strugnell was a lad of 24 years when he joined the international team in Jerusalem in 1954. He was the youngest member of the team, and the last appointed. His stint in the scrollery lasted until 1960, with an interruption of one year in 1956–57, when he taught at the Oriental Institute in Chicago. In 1960 he took a position at Duke University, and later moved to Harvard. He was editor-in-chief of the scrolls from 1984 to 1990. John has never been one to rush into print, either as an author or as an editor, but his contribution to the study of scrolls has been pro- found and influential. By all accounts, he was second only to Milik in his ability to decipher fragments of previously unknown texts. He was involved in the publication of several major texts. It was he who intro- duced to the world the “Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice” in 1959, and noted their relevance for the study of Jewish mysticism.1 He subse- quently supervised Carol Newsom’s edition of this important text in her dissertation at Harvard.2 Together with Elisha Qimron, he intro- duced the work known as Miq◊at MaÆaseh Hattorah in 1984,3 and edited the critical edition which appeared in 1994 as DJD 10. It was

1 “The Angelic Liturgy at Qumrân: 4QSerekh ©Sîrôt ÆÔlat Haååssabbât,” Congress Volume, Oxford (Leiden: Brill, 1959) 318–45. 2 Carol A. Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacriﬁce: A Critical Edition (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985). 3 “An Unpublished Halakhic Letter from Qumran,” Biblical Archaeology Today: Proceedings of the International Congress on Biblical Archaeology, Jerusalem, April 1984 (ed. J. Amitai; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1985) 9–12.

2 PREFACE

the publication of this work, more than anything else, that revolution- ized the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and precipitated the reorgani- zation of the editorial process. Most recently, together with Daniel Harrington, he produced the edition of the major wisdom text from Qumran, 4QInstruction.4 In addition, his 113 page review of DJD 5 is recognized as an indispensable aid for the use of that volume.5 He presented a preliminary edition of Moses-pseudepigrapha in 1985,6 and, together with Devorah Dimant, he published the first preliminary edition of the Pseudo-Ezekiel fragments.7 He also supervised Eileen Schuller’s edition of Non-Canonical Psalms A and B in her 1984 Harvard dissertation.8 John’s contribution to the study of the Scrolls, however, is not ade- quately represented by the publications that bear his name. It lies above all in the generosity with which he has always shared his expertise with younger (and older!) scholars, a generosity to which many contributors to this journal, and specifically to this issue, can attest. His familiarity with the corpus of the scrolls, and his amazing ability to recall details, is unsurpassed. While his impact on scrolls scholar- ship as editor is considerable, his impact as teacher and mentor is greater, and for that we are all grateful. It should also be said that John Strugnell has never been only a scrolls scholar. His expertise extends not only to all aspects of Second Temple Judaism, but also to classical antiquity and early Christianity, with a preference always for the most recherché and obscure details. Most of the dissertations he directed at Harvard dealt with the Pseudepigrapha or Hellenistic Judaism. Indeed, much of the credit for the renaissance of interest in the Pseudepigrapha over the last forty years or so belongs to John’s teaching, first at Duke and then at

4 DJD 34 = Qumran Cave 4. 24. Sapiential Texts, Part 2. 4QInstruction (Musar LeMevin: 4Q415ff), with a re-edition of 1Q26, by John Strugnell and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., and an edition of 4Q423 by Torleif Elgvin (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999). 5 “Notes en marge du volume V des ‘Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan,’” Revue de Qumrân 7(1969–70) 163–276. 6 “Moses-Pseudepigrapha at Qumran: 4Q375, 376, and Similar Works,” in Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The New York University Conference in Memory of Yigael Yadin (ed. L. Schiffman; Shefﬁeld: Shefﬁeld Academic Press, 1990) 221–56. 7 “4Q Second Ezekiel,” Revue de Qumrân 13(1988) 45–58, and “The Merkabah Vision in Second Ezekiel (4Q385 4),” Revue de Qumrân 14(1990) 331–48. 8 Eileen Schuller, Non-Canonical Psalms from Qumran: A Pseudepigraphic Collection (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986).