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]
Burrows was born on October 26, 1889, in Wyoming, Ohio.[5] He was one of three sons born to Edwin Jones, a businessman, and Katharine Douglas (Millar) Burrows.[6] He studied at Cornell University, graduating in 1912.[7] 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.[5]
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".[5]
In 1915, Burrows was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church.[7] Then, from 1915 to 1919, he ministered at a rural church in Texas.[5] For the next year he supervised a survey for the Texas Interchurch World Movement.[5] From 1920 to 1923, he was a pastor and taught the Bible at Tusculum College in Tennessee.[5][7]
Burrows was internationally known for his prompt editing of the Dead Sea manuscripts of Cave One,[8][9] and was able to communicate the results of research in language understandable to the public.[10] Burrows gave working names to several of the scrolls, such as the "Manual of Discipline" to 1QS.[11] Burrows worked on the Isaiah scroll,[12] pointing out its consistency with the Masoretic text.[13]
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.[14]