FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
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