Divinity School Scholar Dies at 77

Emeritus Professor of Christian Origins John Strugnell’s career took off when he was only 23 years old—and ended just as dramatically.

The noted scholar made his mark as a part of the original team working on the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents concerning the history of Judaism and the origins of Christianity that were discovered in the caves near the Dead Sea from 1947 to 1956.

Strugnell died on Nov. 30 at the age of 77 in Cambridge of complications from an infection.

In 1984, Strugnell became editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls project, leading a team of scholars in translating the documents.

“I remember he spent summers in the scrollery working. And when he was at home, he was always upstairs in the study,” his daughter Anne-Christine Strugnell said. “His life was his work.”

Strugnell was born in a suburb of London and had always shown an aptitude for ancient and modern languages. Fresh out of Jesus College at Oxford, Strugnell began working on the Dead Sea Scrolls project.

“He was the right person to take the opportunity and run with it,” his daughter said. “It was the great love story of his life.”

But Strugnell’s time at the crest of his career abruptly ended in 1990, when he made negative comments about Judaism in an interview with the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz.

The public backlash led to the end of his tenure as chief editor of the Scrolls project, and he retired from his post at Harvard Divinity School six years later.

“His achievements took place in a backdrop of enormous struggle,” Anne-Christine Strugnell said. “It wasn’t the way it should have happened.”

During the 1970s, Strugnell was diagnosed with manic depressive illness, for which he was hospitalized in early 1991.

According to those close to him, Strugnell was suffering from an acute bout of mental illness at the time of the controversy.

“I think that while the things he said and did can’t be condoned, they can be forgiven because of his illness,” said Sidnie W. Crawford, who also worked with him on the Scrolls project. According to Crawford, Strugnell was instrumental in bringing both female and Jewish scholars to the team.



CONTINUING A LEGACY

Strugnell’s students remember him as a inspirational teacher and scholar.

“He was a marvelous teacher—really was incredibly erudite,” Crawford said. “He just knew so much about so many things. No matter what you were working on, he always had something very helpful to say.”

Crawford, who is currently a professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said that Strugnell’s scholarly influence lives on.

“His students are going to be his legacy,” Crawford said. “All the students that he trained won’t forget him.”

According to Anne-Christine Strugnell, her father was so immersed in his work that it was sometimes difficult for him to find time for his family of five children.

“But it’s interesting to see that he was a father figure for a lot of his students­—that was where his interests lay,” she said. “He was totally engrossed and enthralled by his work.”

Strugnell held positions at the Oriental Institute of Chicago and Duke University before joining the Harvard faculty.

Besides his daughter Anne-Christine Strugnell, he is survived by his former wife, two other daughters, and two sons.