Eleazar Sukenik

Professor at the Hebrew University of JerusalemAlso: Eliezer Lipa Sukenik, E. L. Sukenik

Professor at the Hebrew University who examined three of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls in Bethlehem, recognised their age, acquired them and published selections from them. His son Yigael Yadin bought the other four in 1954.

Sukenik heard of the scrolls through an Armenian dealer, went to Bethlehem to see the three held by a dealer there, and recognised them as ancient Hebrew manuscripts. His diary records that his hands shook as he unwrapped one. He acquired the three, the War Scroll, the Thanksgiving Scroll and a second copy of Isaiah, and published selections from them. In 1954 his son Yigael Yadin bought the four scrolls of Athanasius Yeshue Samuel for the State of Israel (Dead Sea Scrolls Leon Levy Digital Library, Discovery and Publication). See the Dead Sea Scrolls Are Discovered.

In the timeline

The Dead Sea Scrolls Are Discovered

Bedouin bring seven ancient scrolls from a cave near Qumran to dealers in Bethlehem. A Syrian Orthodox archbishop and a Hebrew University professor buy them, and scholars find Hebrew manuscripts about a thousand years older than any biblical text then known.

Primary sources

The Dead Sea Scrolls from the Qumran Caves

3rd century BC – 1st century AD · Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek · Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem; the seven scrolls first found in Cave 1 are in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum

Dead Sea Scrolls Leon Levy Digital Library, Discovery and Publicationdeadseascrolls.org.il