Millar Burrows

Millar Burrows (Wyoming, Ohio, October 26, 1889 – April 29, 1980) was an American biblical scholar, a leading authority on the Dead Sea scrolls and professor emeritus at Yale Divinity School.^[1] Burrows was director of American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem (now the William F. Albright School of Archaeological Research),^[2] and later president of the American Schools of Oriental Research.^[3] His grandson, Edwin G. Burrows (1943–2018), was an American historian and winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1999).^[4] His great-granddaughter, Kate Burrows, is a professor of public health at the University of Chicago.^[5]

Early life and education

Burrows was born on October 26, 1889, in Wyoming, Ohio.^[6] He was one of three sons born to Edwin Jones, a businessman, and Katharine Douglas (Millar) Burrows.^[7] He studied at Cornell University, graduating in 1912.^[8] He then attended the Union Theological Seminary, New York, to train for ordination, and he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) degree in 1915.^[6]

While working as a minister, Burrows also undertook part-time graduate studies. He studied for his doctorate at Yale University under Charles Cutler Torrey, and he graduated in 1925. His dissertation was titled "The Literary Relations of Ezekiel".^[6]

Career

Ordained ministry

In 1915, Burrows was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church.^[8] Then, from 1915 to 1919, he ministered at a rural church in Texas.^[6] For the next year he supervised a survey for the Texas Interchurch World Movement.^[6] From 1920 to 1923, he was a pastor and taught the Bible at Tusculum College in Tennessee.^[6][8]

Academic career

Burrows was internationally known for his prompt editing of the Dead Sea manuscripts of Cave One,^[9][10] and was able to communicate the results of research in language understandable to the public.^[11] Burrows gave working names to several of the scrolls, such as the "Manual of Discipline" to 1QS.^[12] Burrows worked on the Isaiah scroll,^[13] pointing out its consistency with the Masoretic text.^[14]

Burrows also wrote on the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. On the Bible he once noted that it is concerned with three subjects: religion, agriculture, and war.^[15]

Works

• Founders of Great Religions 1931
• An Outline of Biblical Theology 1946
• Palestine is Our Business 1949
• The Dead Sea Scrolls 1955
• More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls 1958
• Jesus in the first three Gospels 1977