The American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume LXI 2009, Number 1

egan teaching seminars on it 390 and offering more general introductory courses,
which he continued to offer until his retirement. 391 His students, including
Martin Abegg, 392 James Bowley, 393 and John Kampen, 394 have continued to
make contributions to Dead Sea Scrolls studies. 395
In 1983 Wacholder published The Dawn of Qumran. The book argues that
the scroll identified previously as the Temple Scroll should best be understood
as a new Torah, superior to the Mosaic Torah, written by the Teacher of
Righteousness, Zadok, for the community established at the end of days. At
the time, the book was lauded for the theses it put forth. As James VanderKam
suggested in his review of the book, “Wacholder’s theses are extremely important.…
It would come as no surprise if the book should prove to be one of the
most important and widely discussed publications on the Dead Sea Scrolls.” 396
With time, Wacholder’s views have come to be seen as idiosyncratic, but the
challenges he raised to the accepted convention in 1983 are still appreciated for
their importance. 397 The issue here, though, is not to judge the quality of the
argument but to set the context for the events that follow. 398
In his earliest efforts, Wacholder notes that his conclusions were provisional.
399 He was well aware that the limited body of Qumran material available
made substantial conclusions difficult for those who were not privy to the content
of the unpublished scrolls. The acknowledgements in The Dawn of Qumran
indicate Wacholder’s appreciation to John Strugnell, who shared “his notes on
the hitherto unpublished fragments of the sectarian Torah.” 400 Wacholder, like
most other scholars, was forced to rely on the kindness of the editors to see
Qumran materials even thirty years after their discovery, and the situation was
not soon to change.
I n M a y 19 85
Wacholder attended a
New York University
conference on the Dead
Sea Scrolls in memory
of Yadin. 401 The activities
at the conference
inspired Shanks, among
others, to question the
lock that the editorial
team had on the scrolls.
The New York University Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls
in Memory of Yigael Yadin, New York, May 1985.
Left to right, standing: Elisha Qimron, Daniel R.Schwartz,
Hartmut Stegemann, John J. Collins, Johann Maier,
Lawrence Schiffman. Left to right, seated: Joseph M.
Baumgarten, Harry M. Orlinsky, Ben Zion Wacholder,
John Strugnell, Carol A. Newsom
(Courtesy American Jewish Archives)
Strugnell, who at that
time was still editorin-chief,
gave a paper
and shared photos of
his text. 402 Wacholder
was impressed with the
Optimistic, Even with the Negatives: HUC-JIR and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1993 • 57