CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Dead Sea scrolls scholar John Strugnell, who once gained notoriety for alleged anti-Semitic comments, has died in Cambridge, Mass., at the age of 77.
While Strugnell was known in the scholarly community for his research into the historical documents, it was the comments he made to an Israeli newspaper in 1990 that made him notorious, The Boston Globe said Wednesday.
"It's a horrible religion," Strugnell said of Judaism in the notorious interview. "It's Christian heresy, and we deal with our heretics in different ways. You are a phenomenon that we haven't managed to convert -- and we should have managed."
Those comments ultimately ended his scholarly career, despite his daughter's allegations that he was off his medication for manic depression at the time of the interview.
"He said and did many things that horrified him when he found about it later," his daughter, Anne-Christine, said. "My father was not anti-Semitic in any way, shape, or form."
Strugnell, who died from complications from an infection on Nov. 30, is also survived by two other daughters, Claire Strugnell and Monique O'Connell; two sons, Andrew and David; a sister, Jean McMeeking, and five grandchildren.
