CHESTERTOWN, MD—One of the foremost experts on the Dead Sea
Scrolls, Lawrence Schiffman, will lecture on the topic at Washington College on
Monday, October 22. His presentation, “Scholars, Scrolls and Scandals: The Dead Sea
Scrolls, Judaism and Christianity,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Litrenta
Lecture Hall of the John S. Toll Science Center on the College campus, 300
Washington Avenue.
The talk is
sponsored by the Department of History, the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and the Institute for Religion, Politics
& Culture and is free and open to the public.
Schiffman,
who serves as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University,
is a specialist in Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and
Talmudic literature. He has published widely, including numerous scholarly
articles on the history and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the 1995
book Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls.
His expertise has landed him in the PBS Nova
documentary “Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” as well as in four BBC
documentaries, the McNeil-Lehrer Report, and a Discovery special. He also consulted
on the recent Franklin Institute exhibit, “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in
Ancient Times,” in Philadelphia.
Schiffman is a fellow with the American
Academy for Jewish Research, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of
the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation. His most recent books include The Courtyards of the
House of the Lord: Studies on the Temple Scroll (2008) and Qumran and Jerusalem: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism ( 2010).
