Contact: Kay Fike Jones
An Oct. 9 lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls will lead off a series of archaeology presentations at Mississippi State University for 1996-97.
Steven L. McKenzie, associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Rhodes College, Memphis, will speak on "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Retrospective on Fifty Years," as part of the Cobb Institute's lecture series.
The scrolls were discovered nearly a half century ago by Bedouin boys tending their flocks along the western shore of the Dead Sea. The ancient biblical manuscripts were easily the most sensational and important archaeological discovery of the century and McKenzie will review the history of their research.
He also will describe some of the problems involved in the recovery, treatment and study of manuscript materials.
The lecture will explain some of the contributions made by scrolls research and will describe how more study can further understanding of the Bible and its literature.
McKenzie is a graduate of Abilene Christian College. He holds a master of divinity degree from Abilene Christian and a doctor of theology from Harvard University. He has taught at Rhodes College since 1983 and has served as chairman of religious studies there since 1993.
In 1993, he served as a staff member of the Lahav Project Excavations at Tell Halif in Israel, representing the Rhodes College membership in the Lahav Project Academic Consortium.
McKenzie's lecture, free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Simrall Auditorium.
For more information, contact Kathy Elliott at (601) 325-3826.