Geza Vermes was a religious scholar who became one of the "essential translators and a vocal advocate for their broad dissemination" of the Dead Sea Scrolls, according to the New York Times. Until his death, he was a Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies and Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, but continued to teach at the Oriental Institute in Oxford. He was born on June 22, 1924, in Hungary and died on May 8, 2013, after a recurrence of cancer. He was 88.