FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
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- 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.In 1954, Yigael Yadin, the former Chief of Staff for the Israeli Defense
Forces, who taught Archaeology at Hebrew University, purchased
Samuel’s four scrolls for $250,000. Ironically, he was the son of
Professor Sukenik. These four scrolls, and the three purchased by his
father were then housed in a building known as the Shrine of the Book.
While the Israelis worked on these scrolls, across town at the
Rockefeller Museum, de Vaux and his group of international scholars
were working on the fragments they discovered.In 1967, Yadin interrogated Kando, who subsequently relinquished
possession of a scroll he had for six years, which had been found in
Cave 11. Known as the Temple Scroll, at 27 feet, it is the longest scroll,
and has been dated between 150-125 BC. It has references to the
building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the rituals to be performed
there, however, because of the laws found in it in regard to general
matters, and quotes from the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible,
known as the Torah of Moses), it has been referred to as the Sixth
Book of the Law, and may contain the information referred to in 1
Chronicles 28:11-19 and 1 Samuel 8:11.The Pentateuch was compiled by Ezra (Ezra 7:14) about 458 BC, and it
is believed that what was edited out, became part of the Temple Scroll.
Five separate sources were compiled to form the Temple Scroll, and it
is now considered a supplement to the Torah. In addition to the
content, another reason that it is considered a Biblical text, is that in