A smoldering controversy among Bible scholars has burst into the open over the long delay in publishing the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Although the first-century manuscripts were found 42 years ago, fewer than half have been published, and some researchers in ancient religious history say they're fed up with waiting."It's disgraceful," said historian Morton Smith of Columbia University, charging that the scrolls editors have "sat on the material for years," keeping it from other scholars and the public.
The scrolls contain portions of the Old Testament far older than any previously available. It also contains documents about Jewish life during the early days of Christianity.
Much of the material has remained only in the hands of a small team of scholars deciphering it.
David Noel Freedman, professor of biblical studies at the University of Michigan, said 40 years is "much too long to keep the material from public scrutiny."
Only the scroll scholars "and their friends know what is going on," he said in a telephone interview. "They've kept that work in the dark and a whole generation has gone by. It's long past time for some changes."
Smith said the inaccessibility has caused him to postpone research. "I've just been disgusted," he said.
"This is an important body of material for understanding both intellectual and religious history," he said. "For it to be kept secret from other scholars and general knowledge, I think is simply outrageous."
Renewed complaints about the matter were published in the current issue of the bimonthly, Biblical Archaeology Review, which headlined an editorial, "Dead Sea Scrolls Scandal."
Harvard University's John Strugnell, who heads the scroll team of about 20 scholars, said critics are unaware of the complexities of the work. He also said the work is being speeded up.
"They are ignorant of a project like this," he said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. "They don't know the kind of material we're working with. We must deal always with small fragments that must be put together."
He acknowledged the work had gone too slowly for the first 20 years, mainly because of a lack of financing. Only three volumes of scrolls were put out during that period, but nine volumes have been produced since l976.
"We are producing," he said. "It's slow business. But we're getting faster. An immense amount of work is being done."
Freedman, editor of a 30-volume Anchor series being publish by Doubleday on books of the Bible, said that within a year or two after such manuscripts are found, photographic slides should be available to any scholar.
"For a single person to retain access to these materials is simply unacceptable," he said.
The scrolls contain portions of every book of the Old Testament and are about 1,000 years older than any previously available biblical manuscripts, including the complete book of Isaiah and much of Lamentations.
There also are documents of the Qumron community of aesthetics known as the Essenes, including a still unpublished, much-awaited letter from the head of the community, the Teacher of Righteousness, to Jerusalem's high priest.
In Jerusalem, Israel's Department of Antiquities, under which the work is being done, said it has set up a timetable in which the scholars have agreed to publish all of their materials by 1996.