"The Dead Sea Scrolls are the most important and most exciting manuscript find of the twentieth century. Yet their significance remains inaccessible to most, veiled by mystery and scholarly occlusion. This volume, comprised of articles by the world's leading Dead Sea Scroll authorities, is the essential source book for understanding the scrolls and the controversies that rage around them. The articles, drawn from the Biblical Archaeology Review and Bible Review, are edited by Hershel Shanks. Shanks is a leader of the international movement that recently succeeded in releasing the scrolls from the handful of scholars who had hoarded the secret texts for more than thirty-five years." "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls traces the scrolls' often Byzantine path from their initial chance discovery in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds to their status as what Bible scholar Harry Thomas Frank calls "the most sensational archaeological discovery of the century." Cloak-and-dagger antiquities trading, conspiracy theories, and front-page battles over access to the scrolls' secrets all contribute to the intrigue." "This collection addresses the primary questions raised by the scrolls: What do the scrolls tell us about early Christianity and developing rabbinic Judaism? Was Jesus an Essene? Did John the Baptist live with the Qumran community that wrote the scrolls? Is the Temple Scroll the lost sixth book of the Torah? Is the Copper Scroll a map to hidden temple treasure? What do the nearly two hundred biblical scrolls tell us about the development of the Hebrew Bible?" "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls also contains the interview with chief scroll editor John Strugnell that led to his dismissal amid charges of incompetence and anti-Semitism, as well as Shanks's own article that discredits the theory of a Vatican-controlled scroll coverup." "A consensus emerges from these Dead Sea Scroll debates: The scrolls are an incomparable archaeological and historical treasure. They illuminate critical issues in the development of the Judeo-Christian tradition, not bombshells that undermine it."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Of Caves and Scholars: An Overview / Hershel Shanks I. The Find 1. Discovering the Scrolls / Harry Thomas Frank 2. The Historical Context of the Scrolls / Frank Moore Cross II. Where They Came From 3. The Sadducean Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect / Lawrence H. Schiffman 4. The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essenes Or Sadducees? / James C. VanderKam 5. "First Dead Sea Scroll" Found in Egypt Fifty Years Before Qumran Discoveries / Raphael Levy 6. Essene Origins Palestine Or Babylonia? / Hershel Shanks III. The Temple Scroll 7. The Temple Scroll The Longest Dead Sea Scroll / Yigael Yadin 8. The Gigantic Dimensions of the Visionary Temple in the Temple Scroll / Magen Broshi 9. Intrigue and the Scroll / Hershel Shanks 10. Is the Temple Scroll a Sixth Book of the Torah Lost for 2,500 Years? / Hartmut Stegemann IV. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible

11. The Text Behind the Text of the Hebrew Bible / Frank Moore Cross 12. Light on the Bible from the Dead Sea Caves / Frank Moore Cross 13. When the Sons of God Cavorted With the Daughters of Men / Ronald S. Hendel V. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity 14. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity / James C. VanderKam 15. An Unpublished Dead Sea Scroll Text Parallels Luke's Infancy Narrative / Hershel Shanks 16. Was John the Baptist an Essene? / Otto Betz VI. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Judaism 17. New Light on the Pharisees / Lawrence H. Schiffman VII. The Copper Scroll 18. The Mystery of the Copper Scroll / P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. VIII. Reconstructing the Scrolls 19. How to Connect Dead Sea Scroll Fragments / Hartmut Stegemann IX. Controversy and the Scrolls 20. Interview With Chief Scroll Editor John Strugnell / Avi Katzman 21. Silence, Anti-Semitism, and the Scrolls / Hershel Shanks 22. Is the Vatican Suppressing the Dead Sea Scrolls? / Hershel Shanks.