Elisha Qimron

Professor Elisha Qimron

Elisha Qimron (Hebrew: אלישע קימרון; born 5 February 1943) is an academic who studies ancient Hebrew. He took his Doctor of Philosophy in 1976 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with the dissertation The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Hebrew Language at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. For several decades, he has been one of the team of international scholars working on the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly on the texts found in Cave 4 at Qumran.

In 1979 Qimron was co-opted by John Strugnell, the editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls publication team, to assist in completing long-overdue work on the Halakhic Letter (4QMMT) on which Strugnell had been working alone since 1959. The work on the fragments was eventually completed and published in 1994. Qimron was the first Israeli scholar on the team.

During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, many scholars felt frustrated at the delay in publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was generally known that most of the texts had been translated but still had not been available to researchers. Some also complained about the proprietary attitude of some of Strugnell's team toward the scrolls that they were working on, which made access to them difficult, if not impossible, in some cases.

Hershel Shanks, of the Biblical Archaeology Society, decided that the reconstructions of the Dead Sea Scrolls should be made available to scholars. In 1992, he published the two-volume A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It included, without permission, material on the Halakhic Letter (4QMMT) that Qimron had been working on for some 11 years. Qimron had even given the document its title.[1][2]

Qimron decided to sue the Biblical Archaeology Society for breaching his copyright on the grounds that the research it had published was his intellectual property, as he had reconstructed about 40% of the published text. Such reconstruction is unique in the sense that if the original photographs had been given to 100 researchers, that number of different reconstructions would be made.[3][4][5]

In 1993, Judge Dalia Dorner of the Israeli Supreme Court awarded Qimron the highest compensation allowed by law for aggravation in compensation against Shanks and others. A 2000 appeal in front of Judge Aharon Barak and colleagues upheld the verdict.[6][7]

In 2018, Qimron was selected to receive the Israel Prize in Jewish studies for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.[8]

Publications

  • Elisha Qimron, John Strugnell et al. (1994) Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Volume X. Qumran Cave 4: V: Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah. Oxford University Press.
  • Elisha Qimron. (1996). The Temple Scroll: A Critical Edition with Extensive Reconstructions. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
  • Edited by Donald W. Parry and Elisha Qimron. (1999). Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah – STDJ 32. Brill Academic Publishers.
  • Elisha Qimron. The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Harvard Semitic Studies, Scholars Press, Atlanta.
  • Edited by Donald W. Parry and Elisha Qimron. (1999). The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaª). A New Edition Brill Academic Publishers.
  • Elisha Qimron. (2010). The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings. Volume 1. Yad Ben-Zvi Press.[9][10]
  • Elisha Qimron. (2013). The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings. Volume 2. Yad Ben-Zvi Press.[11]
  • Elisha Qimron. (2014). The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings. Volume 3: Between Bible and Mishnah. Yad Ben-Zvi Press.[12]

References

  1. ^ Suplee, Curt (20 November 1991). "Book to Open Access to Dead Sea Scrolls; Biblical Society Will Issue Facsimile Edition of Unpublished Texts". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  2. ^ Schachter, Jonathan (20 November 1991). "Last Remaining Photos of Scrolls Published in U.S." Jerusalem Post. p. 12. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  3. ^ Greenberg, Joel (31 March 1993). "Court Supports Editor on Rights to Dead Sea Text: A Victory for the Authorized Team of Scholars". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  4. ^ Noble, John W. (13 December 1992). "New Accusations Erupt Over the Dead Sea Scrolls". The New York Times. p. 28. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  5. ^ Noble, John W. (22 December 1992). "New Access to Scrolls Fuels Scholars' Warfare: Who Wrote Them and Why? Researchers Attack Long-Held Theories". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  6. ^ Rabinovich, Abraham (31 August 2000). "Scholar to Share Copyright with 2,000-Year-Old Author". Jerusalem Post. p. 1. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  7. ^ "Israeli Court Upholds Scholar's Rights to Dead Sea Scrolls Work". The New York Times. 31 August 2000. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  8. ^ Lidar, Grave-Lazi (26 January 2018). "BGU's Qimron to Receive Israel Prize for Jewish Studies". Jerusalem Post. p. 7. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  9. ^ Feldman, Ariel (2013). "Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings: Volume One". Journal of Semitic Studies. 58 (1). Oxford University Press: 201–202. doi:10.1093/jss/fgs052. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  10. ^ Tigchelaar, Eibert (2015). "Book Review: The Dead Sea Scrolls. The Hebrew Writings Volume One, Written by Elisha Qimron". Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period. 46 (1). Brill: 144–148. doi:10.1163/15700631-12340427. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  11. ^ Puech, Émile (2014). "Reviewed Work: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, Volume Two by Elisha Qimron". Revue de Qumrân. 26 (4 (104)): 631–638. JSTOR 24663248. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  12. ^ Feldman, Ariel (2019). "Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings: Volume Three". Dead Sea Discoveries: A Journal of Current Research on the Scrolls and Related Literature. 26 (2): 242–243. doi:10.1163/15685179-12341506. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
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