Tuesday, April 12, 2011

James Charlesworth, one of the original interpreters of the Dead Sea Scrolls, will speak on "Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Impact on American Judaism and Christianity" on Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. in Kenan Auditorium at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Sponsored by the Teaching American History speaker series, a joint project of the UNC Wilmington Department of Philosophy and Religion and the Pender County Schools, the lecture is free and open to the public. A Q&A session will follow the lecture.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, a Jewish library from the time of Hillel and Jesus, were discovered 13 miles east of Jerusalem in 1947 in 11 caves near the Dead Sea. Included in the find was a complete version of the Hebrew Bible. Charlesworth will discuss how the find changed ideas about Christianity and Judaism in controversial and culturally significant ways. He will highlight the American contribution to this monumental discovery.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls revolutionized our knowledge of Judaism in Jesus' time," said Charlesworth. "The Scrolls have impacted American culture, and Americans have been in the forefront of research about the Dead Sea Scrolls."

Charlesworth is the director of Princeton Theological Seminary's Dead Sea Scrolls Project and has completed excavations at Migdal, Bethsaida, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Khirbet Beza and Qumran. Charlesworth has taught at Duke University, Hebrew University and the Albright Institute, both in Jerusalem, and the University of Tübingen. He served as a distinguished visiting professor at Naples University and McCarthy Professor of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome. He has written more than 65 books and 400 articles and reviews. His book on serpent symbolism was awarded the 2010 "best book on the Bible" award by the Christian Century. He is an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church, serves as advisor to the denomination's World Missionary Council and preaches and lectures globally.

Charlesworth specializes in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OId and New Testaments, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Jesus research and the Gospel of John. He has two honorary doctorates and holds honors from more than 18 countries. He graduated with Ph.D.s from Duke University, Fulbright Scholar University of Edinburgh and ET Ecole Biblique de Jerusalem, and was a professor at Duke University from 1969-1984.

Teaching American History in North Carolina (TAH NC) is part of a nationwide Teaching American History federal grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. TAHNC helps social studies teachers connect the Cape Fear region's rich local history with the history of our nation. With 28 teachers participating in 2010-2011, the program is open to K-12 teachers in Pender, New Hanover and Brunswick counties who cover American History objectives in their curriculum. The history lecture series speakers are chosen for their relevance to the classroom content developed by the teachers.

Media contact: Emily Jones, media relations, 910.962.3171 or jonesel@uncw.edu