ARCHAEOLOGIST* JOE ZIAS denounces Biblical Archaeology Review and its editor Hershel Shanks in an essay published on the Bible and Interpretation website:

H. Shanks, “The Liberator of the Scrolls,” and BAR’s Contribution to Archaeology

For years, BAR has promoted itself as having championed the interests of the Dead Sea Scrolls; in fact, Shanks continually presents himself as “liberating the scrolls from a handful of scholars and making them available to all scholars. The opposite is true.”


By Joe Zias
Science and Archaeology Group,
The Hebrew University
February 2009

It will be interesting to see how Hershel Shanks responds.

*UPDATE (28 February): Sorry, that should be "osteologist."