Florentino García Martínez (born 1942, in Mochales or

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) is a former

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

, now married and for many years professor of

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He is a leading expert on messianic ideas in the

Dead Sea scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

. He is responsible for the standard translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls along with

Eibert Tigchelaar Eibert Johannes Calvinus Tigchelaar (born 1959, Sint Anthoniepolder) is a leading authority and author on the subject of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Formerly he held the position of research associate at the Qumran Instituut (Qumran Institute), Rijksuni ...

: ''The Dead Sea Scrolls: Study Edition'', 2 Volumes, (Leiden/Grand Rapids: Brill/Eerdmans, 1997 & 1998). García Martínez has put forward an analysis of the material regarding the

Wicked Priest Wicked Priest ( he, הכהן הרשע; Romanized Hebrew: ''ha- kōhēn hā-rāš'ā'') is a sobriquet used in the Dead Sea Scrolls '' pesharim'', four times in the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) and once in the Commentary on Psalm 37 (4QpPsa), to r ...

found columns 8 to 12 of the

Habakkuk Commentary The Habakkuk Commentary or Pesher Habakkuk, labelled 1QpHab ( Cave 1, Qumran, pesher, Habakkuk), was among the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 and published in 1951. Due to its early discovery and rapid publication, as well as i ...

known as the Groningen hypothesis. García Martínez became a foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 2004.

Publications

Among García Martínez's more recent publications are: * ''Echoes from the Caves: Qumran and the New Testament.'' (García Martínez, F., Ed.). (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2009). * ''Defining Identities. We, You, and the Other in the Dead Sea Scrolls.'' (Garcia Martinez, F., Ed.). (Leiden: Brill, 2008). * ''Wisdom and apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the biblical tradition.'' (Garcia Martinez, F., Ed.). (Leuven: Peeters, 2003).

Sources

Knighthood announcement

References

1942 births Living people 20th-century Spanish Roman Catholic theologians Dead Sea Scrolls Academic staff of the University of Groningen Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from the Province of Guadalajara 20th-century Dutch Roman Catholic theologians 21st-century Dutch Roman Catholic theologians {{Spain-academic-bio-stub