John Strugnell, Professor of Christian Origins, Dies at Age 77

John Strugnell, a former editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls project and Professor of Christian Origins Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School, died on November 30, 2007, at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His death came after a week of hospitalization for an infection.

Strugnell came to HDS as a visiting associate professor in 1965, after serving for five years at Duke University as an assistant professor of Old Testament. He ended up staying at HDS, and in 1968 was named Professor of Christian Origins, the title he held until his retirement in 1996.

"He was a linguistic genius," former Dean Krister Stendahl said to The Boston Globe on December 5. "We brought him in to get the best man we could imagine for philological and textual criticism precision in our New Testament department."

Born in Barnet, England, on May 25, 1930, Strugnell was fascinated by Semitic languages and religious traditions from a young age. He was a scholarship student at St Paul's School in London, and then went on to Jesus College, Oxford. At age 23, as a graduate student at Oxford, he was offered a position on the original team charged with piecing together and translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, approximately 900 documents found between 1947 and 1956 in caves near the Dead Sea that have unusual significance because they include copies of biblical documents made before 100 ad.

Strugnell became editor-in-chief of the scrolls project in 1984, and held that post until 1990, when his earlier achievements were overshadowed by the publication in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz of negative comments about Judaism as a religion that he made in an interview. The project's backers, already frustrated with the slow progress of the scrolls team, dismissed Strugnell from his position.

He later denied allegations of anti-Semitism, pointing out that he had close working relationships with many Jewish scholars, some of whom signed a letter of support in the aftermath of the publication of his comments. He explained that his comments did not represent his true beliefs, but were made during an acute episode of manic depressive illness, for which he was hospitalized in early 1991.

Strugnell spent his last years reading, writing, and visiting with colleagues and former graduate students. "My students are my legacy," he would say, and throughout his career he was indeed generous in helping other scholars and students. "Those who did not know him judged him unfairly," one former student wrote. "We who were his students knew the truth of a man so generous and caring, so respectful of our work—a friend and supporter."

Strugnell is survived by a sister, Jean McMeeking; his former wife, Cécile; sons David and Andrew; daughters Anne-Christine, Claire, and Monique; and five grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to HDS or to Heifer International, an international project to end hunger.