Florentino García Martínez (born 1942, in Mochales or

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

) 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 common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

, now married and for many years professor of

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

and

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , 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, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He is a leading expert on

messianic In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach' ...

ideas in the

Dead Sea scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

. He is responsible for the standard translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls along with Eibert Tigchelaar: ''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 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 a ...

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 (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

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 Spanish emigrants to the Netherlands {{Spain-academic-bio-stub