Meet President Pfann
Photo credit: Ruth Fremson, Associated Press
The founder and President of the University of the Holy Land/Center for the Study of Early Christianity is Dr. Stephen J. Pfann. Under his leadership, UHL/CSEC has sought to provide the concerned graduate student and New Testament scholar with an environment in which he or she can effectively explore the origins of the Christian faith, particularly in its first generation and in the land of its birth.
President Pfann is known and respected for his scholarship in both academic and lay contexts. He brings a wide range of skills to the research of UHL/CSEC including a background in biology, linguistics, and Biblical studies. Within Israel, Dr. Pfann's expertise was expanded through archaeological training under the late Profs. Yigael Yadin and Yigal Shiloh. Accompanied by a facility in Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and New Testament Greek, he brings a rich and diverse background to his lecture programs, field trips, and study tours.
Since 1992, President Pfann has significantly contributed to the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls as a member of the International Team of Editors. He also created the computerized database to the Dead Sea Scrolls which records the history of photography and location of all the manuscripts from the Judean Wilderness. In the spring of 1993, he published The Dead Sea Scrolls on Microfiche in collaboration with Professor Emanuel Tov, Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project. President Pfann was responsible for the selection and approval of the more than 6,000 images contained in this comprehensive edition, which enables the scholar-at-large and the interested amateur to gain access to the entire corpus of manuscripts. In addition, he is supervising the production of the first complete concordance to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which will be published in both printed and electronic formats.
As a Dead Sea Scroll editor, Dr. Pfann has published one of the manuscripts of the Book of Daniel from Qumran cave 4 and is responsible for the decipherment of more than fifty manuscripts written in the "cryptic" scripts found exclusively in the caves of Qumran. These documents contain esoteric teaching reserved for the higher priestly echelons of the Second Temple Period. The results of his research are being published in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Oxford University Press). Drawing on his background in biology and other sciences he has pioneered the use of parchment hair follicles to reconstruct the Dead Sea Scrolls.
President Pfann has created an exhaustive map-oriented database of the finds and manuscripts from Qumran. He has been highly praised by his peers for having produced a revised English, annotated edition of the excavation notes of Kh. Qumran and Ein Feshkha by Pere R. de Vaux for publication in the series Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus.
As an archaeologist, Dr. Pfann was a member of the staff of the excavations of Beth Shean (with Yigael Yadin) and the City of David (with Yigal Shiloh). He is currently co-director of the excavations of the Nazareth Village Farm. He is also the director of research for the reconstruction of the living museum, Nazareth Village, which explores all facets of the social, religious, family and daily life of the first century Jewish town of Nazareth. He has appeared in Who's Who in Biblical Studies and Archaeology (Biblical Archaeology Society).
President Pfann received his M.A. in Bible from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the Department of Ancient Semitic Languages (2001). Dissertation topic: The Character of the Essene Movement in Light of the Manuscripts Written in Esoteric Script from Qumran. Program Director: Prof. Michael Stone. He and his wife Claire, residents of Jerusalem since 1982, have been married for twenty-nine years and have three children.
A Word of Welcome from the President
Dear Potential Student,
Few places in the world can compare with the Holy Land as an ideal setting in which to study the Bible and the backgrounds of early Christianity. This is the land in which the Church was born and its topography and climate have remained nearly unchanged since Bible days. Though the Holy Land today is characterized by a multi-cultural, complex society, insights into the agrarian world of the Biblical drama can still be gained from observing traditional village and nomadic life. In addition, Jerusalem serves as a hub for Christian and Jewish scholars of international stature who live, work, study, and teach here. The impact of study in the land of the Bible will remain with dedicated students of the Bible throughout their lives.
The programs offered by the University of the Holy Land (UHL) endeavor to make the most of these unique opportunities. Specialized instruction in the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient documents, palaeography, ancient languages, archaeology, the anthropology of Biblical societies, and the history and phenomenology of pilgrimage offer the student a three-dimensional look into the world of the patriarchs, the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles. In addition, UHL's involvement in various archaeological and reconstruction projects provides the student the opportunity of a hands-on experience "in the field" as well.
We invite you to seriously consider the possibility of embarking on a life-changing journey to the land of the Bible, the land of your forefathers. Come join us at UHL where the land of the Bible is truly our classroom.
Stephen Pfann, Ph.D.
President
University of the Holy Land
Come Study at the University of the Holy Land!
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© 2007 University of the Holy Land
