WKU Libraries presented Joseph Trafton, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at WKU, who spoke on “The Dead Sea Scrolls†as part of the “Far Away Places Series” at Barnes & Noble Bookstore (1680 Campbell Lane) on the evening of March 19th, 2009.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between the years 1947 and 1956. The area is 13 miles east of Jerusalem and is 1300 feet below sea level. The mostly fragmented texts, are numbered according to the cave that they came out of. They have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times.
Trafton, who has a M.T.S. and Th.M. from the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a PhD from Duke, was first introduced to the Dead Sea Scrolls during his masters work in a course on the Jewish setting of the New Testament. He continued studying about the scrolls at Duke. When his adviser moved to the Princeton Theological Seminary, Joe was invited to be part of an international team of scholars assembled to edit and translate the scrolls called the Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project. He was assigned five fragmentary scrolls, the first of which was published in 2002. As part of his research he has traveled to Israel and visited Qumran, the archaeological site connected with the scrolls. At WKU he teaches an undergraduate course on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In addition to this work on the “scrolls†Joe is the author of two books, The Syriac Version of the Psalms of Solomon published by the Society of Biblical Literature, and Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary published in the “Reading the New Testament Series†by Smyth & Helwys in 2005. One reviewer called it “a balanced approach to Revelation that makes good use of contemporary scholarship.â€
Nancy Richey was recently awarded a New Faculty Scholarship to pursue research into the the life of an influential Kentucky musician, Moses Rager. Rager is credited with teaching Merle Travis the unique thumb-finger picking style, that has influenced a generation of guitarists. The award is available to new faculty members within three years of appointment, and “provides project operating support of up to $4,000 to regular, full-time, tenure-track Western Kentucky University faculty for research and creative activity. Western Kentucky University’s mission focuses on scholarship in its four forms — discovery, integration, application, and teaching — thus, all professional activity by faculty, regardless of the discipline, is encompassed in this definition of scholarship.”
