David Noel Freedman, beloved friend, colleague, mentor, world-class Biblical scholar, human being par excellence, passed away on April 8, 2008, at age 85.

In his academic career that spanned more than 60 years, Freedman was equally a superb teacher, a producer of original research, a foremost editor of critical works and an entrepreneur. He wrote, co-authored, or edited 470 books and articles on Hebrew Bible, New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls and archaeology.

Freedman is perhaps best known as the meticulous general editor of the three-pronged Anchor Bible project (New York: Doubleday; now with Yale University Press), which consists of the Anchor Bible Critical Commentaries, the six-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary, and the Anchor Bible Reference Library. He was general editor of the series, which now comprises more than 90 books, for more than 50 years.