Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679414487 ISBN 13: 9780679414483

Publisher: Random House, 1992

Synopsis

A groundbreaking anthology that demolishes the myths -- and reveals the true significance -- of the greatest archaeological discovery of our time.

Ever since their initial discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused excitement, jealousy, and not a little dread among some who feared their contents might undermine the foundations of Judaism and Christianity. For more than 35 years the majority of scroll texts remained the intellectual property of an exclusive coterie of scholars. Recently, however, the Biblical Archaeology Review succeeded in breaking that monopoly.

This path-clearing volume is an illuminating assessment of what these texts reveal about a lost era in the history of two world religions, Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. Were the Dead Sea Scrolls written by the Essenes, an ascetic sect of Jews that may have included John the Baptist among its members? Is the Copper Scroll a secret map to the treasures of the Jerusalem Temple? In what way do these books prefigure the teachings of early Christianity? Additional chapters address the controversies surrounding the Scrolls' discovery and their long suppression -- including the possible role of the Vatican and charges of anti-Semitism on the part of a former chief editor of the official scroll publication team.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Reviews

Culled from the pages of Biblical Archaeology Review , edited by Shanks, these essays by scholars in the field shed further light on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in the Qumran caves east of Jerusalem in 1947. Eschewing the mainstream opinion that identifies the inhabitants of Qumran as members of a Jewish religious sect called the Essenes, Lawrence Schiffman radically links the sectarians with the priestly and scripturally literalistic Sadducees. The late Yigael Yadin describes his laborious efforts to acquire the crucial Temple Scroll, the difficult task of unrolling it and his belief that Jesus was anti-Essene even though the Essenes' rejection of the Jerusalem Temple and its cult influenced the early Christians. Hartmut Stegemann claims that the Temple Scroll is a lost sixth book of the Torah composed of material rejected when the Pentateuch was canonized under the influence of Ezra in the fifth century B.C. In a 1990 interview with an Israeli journalist, John Strugnell expresses anti-Semitic views; he was subsequently removed from his position as chief Scrolls editor. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.

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: Random House
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679414487
• ISBN 13: 9780679414483
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Hershel Shanks