Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls

449 Pages·2010·4.62 MB·English

by  Jason Kalman, Jaqueline S. du Toit

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canada’s big biblical bargain
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Canada’s Big Biblical Bargain
How McGill University Bought the
Dead Sea Scrolls
jason kalman and jaqueline s. du toit
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
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© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2010
isbn 978-0-7735-3688-3

Legal deposit second quarter 2010
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also
been received from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
and the University of the Free State.
McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada
Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge
the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp) for our publishing
activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kalman, Jason, 1974–
Canada’s big biblical bargain / Jason Kalman, Jaqueline S. du Toit.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-7735-3688-3
1. Dead Sea scrolls. 4Q. 2. Acquisition of manuscripts – Québec (Province)
– Montréal – History – 20th century. 3. Scott, R. B. Y. (Robert Balgarnie
Young), 1899– – Correspondence. 4. Cultural property – Protection –
Jordan – History. 5. McGill University – History – 20th century. 6. McGill
University. Archives. 7. McGill University. Faculty of Religious Studies
– Archives. 8. Israel. Rashut ha-atikot. 9. Acquisition of manuscripts –
Québec (Province) – Montréal – History – 20th century – Sources. I. Du
Toit, Jacqueline S., 1970–. II. Title
bm487.k34 2010 296.1’55 c2010-900375-6
Typeset by Jay Tee Graphics Ltd. in 10/12 Sabon
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To
dana & pierre
and
b. barry levy
Friend, Teacher, and Mentor
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Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword xv
Preface xix
Abbreviations xxiii
part one
1 Introduction: “I should perhaps recall to you …” 3
2 “Telling tales of the early days”: McGill Buys the Dead Sea Scrolls 21
3 “We must ride out the crisis”: The Efforts to Bring the Dead Sea Scrolls
to Montreal 79
4 The Real Question: The Nation, the Object, and Owning the Past 123
Postscript “The harvest of this patient waiting” 135
part two
Annotated Correspondence 139
Appendix Transcription of R.B.Y. Scott’s Handlist of Qumran Cave
Four fragments purchased by McGill University as of
May 1955 308
Notes 319
Bibliography 387
Index 407
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Illustrations
R. B. Y. Scott 24
Roland de Vaux and G. Lankester Harding 25
F. Cyril James 35
Cave 4 Fragments Purchased for McGill – pam 41.207 62
Cave 4 Fragments Purchased for McGill – pam 41.208 63
Cave 4 Fragments Purchased for McGill – pam 41.209 64
Cave 4 Fragments Purchased for McGill – pam 41.210 65
Enlargement of McGill Marking “S” on Fragments from pam 66
Scholars at work in the Jerusalem Scrollery – pam 41.212 66
Stanley Frost 95
Papyrus Fragments in the Collection of McGill’s Redpath Museum 136