Maxwell Institute Dead Sea Scrolls database honored as 'outstanding'

Brigham Young University's "Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library," produced by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and published by Brill Academic Press, is on Choice Magazine's short list of Outstanding Academic Titles from among 7,000 or so reviewed in 2007.

BYU's electronic database contains high-resolution searchable texts of all of the published non-biblical scrolls and comes complete with an English translation. The latest version of the database, published at the end of 2006, is the culmination of 10 years of work by the Maxwell Institute and is the result of more than 50 years of research in publishing and translating the Dead Sea scrolls.

The database was edited by Emanuel Tov of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and produced by Noel B. Reynolds and Kristian S. Heal of the Maxwell Institute. Through Bril1 Academic Press, the Maxwell Institute is allowed to distribute copies of the database on campus to BYU students and faculty at little or no cost.

Choice Magazine is published by the American Library Association and is distributed to more than 35,000 libraries, academics and administrators each year. The Outstanding Academic Title awards are conferred based on ratings in six criteria, including academic excellence and value to undergraduate students.

The Maxwell Institute is planning a new version of the database, which will also include biblical manuscripts discovered in Qumran. Donald W. Parry, a member of BYU's Near Eastern Languages Department and an expert in Dead Sea Scrolls studies, will edit this database.