Chief scroll editor John Strugnell has called his critics “fleas.” Here are some quotes from the fleas identified on our cover:

Geza Vermes (Oxford University): “The world is entitled to ask the authorities responsible … what they intend to do about this lamentable state of affairs. For unless drastic measures are taken at once, the greatest and most valuable of all Hebrew and Aramaic manuscript discoveries is likely to become the academic scandal par excellence of the twentieth century.”

T. H. Gaster (Columbia University): “Many of us who, stand outside the charmed circle of the ‘Scrolls team’ in Jerusalem deplore the fact that … relatively little has been made generally available to us … the prevailing policy will, by the hazards of mortality, prevent a whole generation of older scholars from making their contribution.”