As information on and photographs or transcriptions of the Dead Sea Scrolls slowly became available in the years following their discovery in 1947, many people interested in the historical and cultural background of the Bible began to actively investigate the contents and to consider the significance of these two thousand-year-old documents. Chief among Latter-day Saints who began to study the scrolls that were available in the 1950s and 1960s was Hugh Nibley (see the following list of publications by Latter-day Saints). Since that time, Latter-day Saints with varying degrees of training have studied, written, and spoken about the value of the scrolls and the interest they have for Latter-day Saints.

1991

In the fall, Truman G. Madsen, who was then the director of the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, was invited to serve as a member of the advisory board of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation (DSSF).

1992

In the early months of the year, Truman Madsen and William Hamblin, a BYU professor of history teaching at the Jerusalem Center, discussed the possibility that an electronic database of the Dead Sea Scrolls could be created and contacted the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), headquartered in Provo, to discuss how that might be accomplished.

Later in the spring, Noel B. Reynolds, president of FARMS and a BYU professor of political science, introduced the possibilities of such a project to Bruce Hafen, then provost of BYU, and a decision was formally made that BYU and FARMS would cooperate on the creation of an electronic database. BYU provided WordCruncher™ computer software necessary for search capabilities, as well as legal and other types of support, and FARMS provided funding, management, electronic versions of the texts, and accepted the responsibility to produce and market the database to the academic community.

In the fall, a preliminary demonstration of WordCruncher™ for Windows using a few Dead Sea Scroll texts was shown to Emanuel Tov, editor in chief of Discoveries in the Judean Desert (hereafter DJD, published by Oxford University Press), the multi-volume series that is the official publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Tov was pleased with the possibilities and encouraged the development of the database.

1994

(Left to Right) BYU Professors Scott R. Woodward, Dana M. Pike, and David Rolph Seely, and Steven W. Booras, FARMS electronic projects manager, in front of the cliffs where Cave 1 is located.

In January, while Donald W. Parry, BYU professor of Hebrew and a member of the FARMS board of directors, was living in Jerusalem, Emaunel Tov invited him to become a member of the international team of editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Parry is assisting Frank M. Cross, emeritus professor at Harvard University, with work on two Samuel scrolls from Cave 4 at Qumran.

In the spring, David R. Seely, BYU professor of ancient scripture, was invited to become a member of the international team of editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Seely is assisting Moshe Weinfeld, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with work on the Barki Nafshi texts from Cave 4 at Qumran. The results of all their work will be published in DJD. Dana M. Pike, BYU professor of ancient scripture, was also invited to become a member of the international team of editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and is presently working on miscellaneous and unidentified fragments of scrolls from Cave 4 at Qumran. Steven W. Booras was hired at this time by FARMS as electronic projects manager and specifically assigned to manage the creation of the scroll database.

In the fall, Scott R. Woodward, BYU professor of microbiology, began an academic year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with support from the DSSF and FARMS. He helped to establish a lab there to analyze the DNA of scroll fragments and other archaeological artifacts.

1995

Early in the year, Andrew Skinner, BYU professor of ancient scripture, was invited to become a member of the international team of editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls to work with Pike in preparing miscellaneous and unidentified fragments of scrolls from Qumran Cave 4 for publication in DJD.

In the spring, BYU and FARMS sponsored a Dead Sea Scrolls conference at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies that included the Latter-day Saints that were then actively involved in work on the scrolls. Israeli and other international scroll scholars were invited and a preliminary demonstration of the electronic database was given.

1996

During the first few months of the year, FARMS began scanning the negatives of photographs of the Qumran documents held by the Ancient Biblical Manuscripts Center (ABMC), located in Claremont, California. FARMS provided a copy of the digitized images to ABMC in exchange for permission to use the photographs in the database. E. Jan Wilson was at this time hired by FARMS to supervise the electronic formatting of the textual material in the database.

In the spring, BYU’s College of Religious Education and FARMS sponsored a one-day conference at BYU that was open to the general public to discuss the scrolls from an LDS point of view. Most of the presentations were by Latter-day Saints actively involved in work on the Dead Sea Scrolls. This volume contains the results of that conference.

In the summer, BYU and FARMS hosted a three day international scholarly conference in Provo on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The program again included presentations by Latter-day Saints actively involved in Dead Sea Scroll research. Another demonstration of the electronic database, still in the process of development, was given.

Also in the summer, David A. Arnold and David G. Long, BYU professors of electrical engineering, used ground-penetrating radar in the area of the Dead Sea to help archaeologists look for more caves that might contain more scrolls or related material. The results of these tests are not available at press time.

1997