Johannes Petrus Maria "Jan" van der Ploeg (4 July 1909, in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

– 4 August 2004, in Nijmegen) was a Dutch Dominican specialist in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

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 ...

and

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

manuscript research. He was Professor of

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

and Semitics at the

Catholic University of Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century ...

(1951–1979) after which time he spent most of his time in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, and was raised to the dignity of chorbishop (or

chorepiscopus A chorbishop is a rank of Christian clergy below bishop. The name chorepiscope or chorepiscopus (plural chorepiscopi) is taken from the Greek and means "rural bishop". History Chorepiscopi are first mentioned by Eusebius as existing in the seco ...

) in the

Syriac Catholic Church The Syriac Catholic Church ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ, ʿĪṯo Suryayṯo Qaṯolīqayṯo, ar, الكنيسة السريانية الكاثوليكية) is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic Christianity ...

in 1963. In 1958 he became 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 ...

Selected publications

*''Oud-Syrisch Monniksleven'', Leiden, 1942. *''Vondsten in de Woestijn van Juda'', 1957; Engl. transl.: ''The Excavations at Qumran: A Survey of the Judaean Brotherhood and its Ideas'', 1958; German transl., 1959. *''Editio princeps, Aramaic Job Targum from Qumran'', 1971. *''The Christians of St. Thomas and their Syriac Manuscripts'' (Placid Lecture Series, 3), Bangalore, 1983. *''The Book of Judith (Daughter of Merari)'', (Môrân 'Ethô Series3, Baker Hill, Kottayam, 1991.

References

* * Festschrift for 70th Birthday. 1909 births 2004 deaths Linguists from the Netherlands Old Testament scholars Dutch Dominicans 20th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Rectors of universities in the Netherlands Syriac Catholic clergy 20th-century linguists {{Netherlands-reli-bio-stub