[5] His mother was a housewife and part-time PE instructor while his father was a college professor, professional engineer and President of Bradley University.
[5] In the late 1960s, Abegg performed with his brother Bob in a popular rock band in Peoria, which was signed by Audio Fidelity Records before breaking up.
In the early 1970s, the two Abegg brothers continued to perform, finding a niche in the Christian rock music scene.
[5] After this, he moved to British Columbia, where he became a professor of Dead Sea Scrolls Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley.
[5] In 1987 he returned to the states, and completed his dissertation at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati on the War Scroll from Qumran Cave 1.
[8] However, Abegg's publication broke a forty-year monopoly on the scrolls, allowing scholars of all kinds access to examine the artifacts.