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In 1882, on the site where, according to tradition, St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr was
stoned to death, a French Dominican monk established a Dominican church and monastery in
Jerusalem. At the urging of Pope Leo XIII, a Biblical school was begun there in 1890 by Father
Albert Lagrange to train scholars with the knowledge necessary to protect the Church against the
potential of damaging archaeological discoveries. Originally known as the Ecole Practique
d´Etudes Bibliques, it was later renamed the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise de
Jerusalem.
Lagrange became a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which had been started
by Pope Leo to ‘monitor’ the work of Catholic scriptural scholarship. In 1956, de Vaux became a
consultant to this Commission until his death in 1971, as did his successors Father Pierre Benoit,
and Jean-Luc Vesco in 1987. The head of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger who is also the executive head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
which prior to 1965 had been known as the Holy Office; and prior to 1542, as the Holy
Inquisition. After 1971, with many common members, the two groups were virtually combined,
sharing the same offices at the Palace of the Congregation at the Holy Office Square in Rome.
Because of this connection, the implication had been made that the Vatican was exerting
influence over the Scrolls, in order to control what information is released.
The team that de Vaux chose in 1953, to assemble and translate the Scrolls were primarily
Catholic:
1) Frank Cross: Harvard Professor, of the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago
and the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. The only Protestant on the team.
2) Monsignor Patrick Skehan: From the United States, who was director of the Albright
Institute. He was quoted as saying that the Biblical scholar should adhere to Church
doctrine and “be subject always to the sovereign right of the Holy Mother Church to
witness definitively what is in fact concordant with the teaching she has received from
Christ.” When he died in 1980, he was replaced by Professor Eugene Ulrich of Notre
Dame University.
3) Father Jean Starcky: From France, who, after his death, was replaced by Father Emile
Puech of the Ecole Biblique.
4) Dr. Claus-Hunno Hunzinger: From Germany, who was later replaced by a French
priest, Father Maurice Baillet.
5) Father Josef Milik: A priest from Poland.
6) John M. Allegro: An ex-Methodist turned agnostic from Oxford, who revealed that
certain material was being kept secret because of the controversial nature, and de Vaux
did not want the Church to be embarrassed. He was replaced by Oxford Professor John
Strugnell, who in 1960 became Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies at Duke
University; and in 1968 became the Professor of Christian Origins at the Harvard
Divinity School.
After de Vaux’s death in 1971, his handpicked successor was another Dominican, Father
Pierre Benoit, who became the head of the Ecole Biblique and the overseer of the international
team, until his death in 1987. Strugnell, who converted to Catholicism, then became the leader of
the team.
As you can see, this small group of Catholic scholars had complete control of all of the Dead
Sea Scroll fragments that were found.