From UCSD
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
David Noel Freedman; UCSD professor a legend among Bible scholarsIndeed.
By Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE RELIGION & ETHICS EDITOR
April 20, 2008
UCSD biblical scholar David Noel Freedman died April 8. He was 85 and still teaching.
In these final years, he had been bowed by age. Last June, he needed a steadying arm to make his way from his office at UCSD to a lunch meeting. But Dr. David Noel Freedman, eminent professor of history and Judaic studies, had an enthusiasm that time could not deter.
Last year, at the age of 85, he came out with a book about the Dead Sea Scrolls, a subject he had studied for more than half a century. It was, he said, the 351st book he had either co-authored or edited in his illustrious career.
He was a legend among Bible scholars. After all, he had managed to graduate from UCLA when he was only 17 and then went on to get a degree in Hebrew Bible from Princeton Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University (a colleague reports that he wrote two dissertations, both of which were later published as books).
He was a former president of the Society of Biblical Literature and editor in chief of the massive Anchor Bible Project, which consists of dozens of volumes of commentary and explanation.
So it was little wonder that tributes began spilling forth as news spread of his sudden death April 8 at a son's home in Northern California.
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