As the editors of this volume, we acknowledge the work of numerous individuals who assisted us in both the organization of the conference and the preparation of this volume. We appreciate the support and direction of Robert L. Millet, dean of religious education at BYU, and Noel B. Reynolds, president of FARMS. We are grateful to Brent Hall, FARMS director of operations and development, Margene Jolley, assistant to the director, others on the FARMS staff, and to Becky Schulties, a BYU graduate student in Near Eastern studies, for taking care of the numerous details involved in the planning of the conference. We express our thanks to Erik Swanson for assistance in gathering and organizing data for this introductory material. We also thank Sandra A. Thorne and Mary Mahan, the FARMS editors assigned to this volume, for their careful and accurate work.

Donald W. Parry

1. See Florentino García Martínez, trans., The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated, translated into English by Wilfred G. E. Watson (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), xxvi.