Research Professor of Manuscript Studies and the Biblical Tradition

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Dr. Scott Th. Carroll joined Baylor as  Research Professor of Manuscript Studies and the Biblical Tradition March of 2011.  He is the  Director of the Green Collection and Principal Investigator.

Scott Th. Carroll has a Ph.D. in Ancient Studies from Miami University of Ohio and specializes in the study of ancient and medieval manuscripts.  Dr. Carroll has directed the excavation of the earliest, unoccupied monastery in the world at Wadi Natrun, Egypt recovering important material evidence about the earliest stages of Christian monasticism.  He has edited and published numerous undocumented ancient and medieval texts primarily written in Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic.

Dr. Carroll has taught in Higher Education for 3 decades and has been recognized as Professor of the Year on 3 occasions at different universities.  He is an innovative teacher and committed to mentoring students, apprenticing them in research, working with manuscripts, teaching them the necessary languages while cultivating their skills and interests as young scholars.  He presently has over 30 students who have gone on to earn Ph.D.s and teach in Higher Education.

While primarily interested in ancient and medieval manuscripts, Dr. Carroll also has a passionate interest in the integration of technology in teaching and research.  He developed an internationally acclaimed Internet-based educational program that connected students from 35 countries with his excavation in the Sahara.  The program is a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum illustrating the creative use of technology in education.  Dr. Carroll is presently working with colleagues at Oxford University on innovative digital and laser techniques to recover what had been thought to be lost or unreadable texts.

In the 1990s, Dr. Carroll developed and directed one of the largest collections of biblically related materials in private hands in the world.  Conferences were held with resulting publications in conjunction with the British and Vatican Libraries.  Presently, he has overseen the development of the Green Collection which is an enormous and significant private collection of ancient biblical antiquities, cuneiform, papyri, Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient and medieval biblical and related manuscripts, Judaica and Jewish Scrolls, Incunabula and Post-Incunabula and rare printed Bibles, books and historical items.  He works closely with the Green Family of Oklahoma City with this initiative.  The collection is destined to be the core of a major international non-sectarian museum and research center to which Baylor University will be intimately connected.

Dr. Carroll is the PI for research projects conducted under the auspices of the Green Scholars Initiative (GSI) including special projects placed at Baylor University, which is the academic home for the work.  The projects are jointly overseen by the leading scholars in each related field.  There are research projects presently underway at over 30 institutions nationwide involving hundreds of students working with professors under Dr. Carroll and his colleagues’ direction leading to ongoing publications.  He is presently directing the research of some of the earliest-known Greek literary papyri in the world which Dr. Carroll extracted from mummy cartonnage and some of the earliest biblical texts known to-date.  GSI is administrated by another Baylor Fellow, Dr. Jerry Pattengale.

Dr. Carroll’s projects also include the research and publication of Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which contains two ascetic treatises by John Climacus, in Syriac written on portions of six recycled codices including the earliest and most extensive collection of scripture in Jesus’ vernacular, Palestinian Aramaic and scriptures in Greek dating to the late 4c CE.  Another project is investigating the earliest, near-complete copy of the Psalms in Middle English, by Richard Rolle with other material.  Dr. Carroll is also working with special projects on Baylor’s campus with classical papyri, a Carolingian Commentary and a Latin text called the Mirror of Human Salvation.

Dr. Carroll  has done numerous documentaries, TV and radio interviews including being featured on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, lectures regularly for the Asian Baptist Theological Institute throughout Asia.

Dr. Carroll is married to his high school girlfriend of over 3 decades, Denise (Foreman) Carroll.  They have 4 grown children and a standard poodle named Samson that Dr. Carroll believes can respond to commands in several ancient languages.  Dr. Carroll travels extensively around the world building the Green Collection, conducting research, overseeing exhibitions and lecturing.  He lectured for over 20 years for a month-long period in Greece.  Dr. Carroll was a former US National Freestyle and Greco-Roman champion and toured internationally on the US team.