Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls - Softcover

Shanks, Hershel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0281046719 ISBN 13: 9780281046713

Publisher: SPCK, 1993

Synopsis

8vo. Large. 342pp. Illus.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Outstanding anthology, drawn in part from The Biblical Archaeological Review and The Bible Review, that serves as a complete primer to what biblical scholar Harry Thomas Frank has called ``the most sensational archaeological discovery of the century.'' Shanks, editor of The Biblical Archaeological Review, has a flair for drama, evident both in the many essays here about the intrigue that swirls around the scrolls--spies, conspiracy theories, and shadowy antique-dealers all play their part--and in his two final selections. One of these is a reprint of the infamous newspaper interview with Harvard professor John Strugnell that led to Strugnell's ouster as chief editor of the scrolls on charges of incompetence and anti-Semitism; the other is a skewering by Shanks of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh's recently published The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception (not reviewed), which imagines a Vatican coverup in scroll research: Shanks calls the theory ``hogwash.'' Other essays juggle other hot potatoes: Was Jesus an Essene? Is the Temple Scroll a lost sixth book of the Torah? What light do the scrolls shed on Christianity and Judaism? Contributors range from world-class scholars (Frank Moore Cross, James C. Vanderkam, et al.) to journalists and filmmakers; in the midst of hot debate on the provenance and message of the scrolls, a clear consensus emerges--that the scrolls constitute an invaluable archaeological window onto the world that gave birth to both Christianity and rabbinical Judaism, but that they contain no bombshells that threaten tenets of either faith. Exciting and reliable, and thus a superb replacement for Edmund Wilson's pioneering but hysterical (and hopelessly out-of- date) 1955 bestseller, Scrolls from the Dead Sea. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal

The discovery and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most important and controversial events in 20th-century biblical and related studies. As editor and publisher of Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR), Shanks has observed the progress of Scroll studies and the heat they have generated. Here, he compiles 22 articles from the pages of BAR and Bible Review dealing with the discovery of the Scrolls, the ancient community that stored them away, and their impact upon the study of the Bible, Rabbinic Judaism, and early Christianity. Three chapters on the controversy surrounding the publication (and in many cases nonpublication) of the materials round out the volume. In the final chapter, Shanks reacts to the recent sensational book The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception ( LJ 1/92), labeling as "hogwash" their charge of Vatican suppression of Qumran material and interpretations that might undermine Church doctrine. The articles included are written by scholars but are easily accessible to lay readers. Coverage is balanced, including opposing viewpoints. There is one annoying omission: nowhere in the volume are the original publication dates of the articles given. This anthology is appropriate for public and academic libraries.
- Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0281046719
• ISBN 13: 9780281046713
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1