Józef Milik

Józef Tadeusz Milik (24 March 1922 – 6 January 2006) was a Polish biblical scholar and a Catholic priest, researcher of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) through the deserts of Judea/Jordan, and translator and editor of the Book of Enoch in Aramaic (fragments).

He was fluent in Russian, Italian, French, German, and English besides his native Polish, plus many ancient and dead languages including Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Syriac, Old Church Slavonic, Arabic, Georgian, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Hittite.

Biography He was born into a peasant family in a small village in central Poland. His father, despite being a farmer, was interested in science, educated himself and gathered a rich library. He influenced his son, who finished the gymnasium in Siedlce and later entered the theological college in Płock in 1939. When the college was closed by Germans after they invaded Poland, he moved to Warsaw. After World War 2, he studied at Catholic University of Lublin and in 1946 was ordained a priest.

Work on the Dead Sea Scrolls

Józef Milik deciphered hundreds of the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls as a member of the publication team.

Then he joined Roland Vaux’s team and helped to discover Cave 3, excavated and unearthed hundreds of fragments from Cave 4, and took part in the discovery and excavations of Caves 5 and 6. He later became one of the most essential participants of the translation and publication team. Although he published more new Dead Sea Scrolls texts than any other scholar, he had too many documents assigned to him, which slowed the overall progress of publication; additionally, his work began to suffer later in life as a result of alcohol use disorder.

Martinez/Tigchelaar (1999). The Dead Sea Scrolls Edition [Hénoc au pays des aromates pp. 413, 425, 430]; Caves 1 to 11 & more, with Aramaic frag. and English translation.