The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity

The story of the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls has become a part of Western lore. Who has not heard about the Bedouin shepherd who threw a rock into a cave, heard a crash, went in to explore, and found the scrolls? The story in that form may be accurate, but it turns out to be something of a simplification. As a matter of fact, much remains unknown about the exact circumstances under which those scrolls were discovered. The story of the discovery at first deals with just one cave; the other ten were located at later times.

Ever since their discovery in 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) have been the subject of a prodigious amount scholarly research and popular speculation. In this wonderful tour de force leading DSS scholars James Vanderkam and Peter Flint provide an outstanding overview of these ancient documents and their relevance to Jewish and Christian religious traditions. While the book has much strength, the overview of contextual and technical issues; the DSS relevance to the Old Testament (OT)/Hebrew Bible and New Testament (NT) and the refutation of some leading speculative theories, are particularly valuable.

* First, with respect to broad contextual issues, the authors provide an excellent overview of the discovery, the various documents and salient technical issues such as translation, reconstruction and dating. The discussion of the different archaeological, palaeographical and carbon- 14 dating techniques is particularly helpful and informative

* Second, the text provides a comprehensive book-by-book analysis of the scrolls and their relationship to the major OT textual traditions (Masoeretic, Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch), which also includes the respective Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. This compilation and synthesis is an invaluable reference - articulate, concise and even-handed..

* Third, while the DSS have less direct reference to the NT the analysis in this area is also a valuable asset to NT students and scholars. The chapter dedicated to O'Callaghan's claim that NT fragments are included in the Dead Seas may be of particular interest to Christians. While not definitive the authors make a strong case that the specific fragments identified are unlikely to be NT excerpts. The analysis of contextual and stylistic similarities between DSS and NT books also provide helpful historic context.

* Finally, while not a primary focus of the book, the gentle yet firm refutation of the silly sensationalist theories advocated by Allegro, Thiering, and Eisenman is a worthwhile read for the general reader. Unfortunately, this text is probably not an ideal forum to reach the popular audience that would most benefit from this discussion.

Overall, this is the definitive DSS overview - to date - essential reading for all NT and OT students. A good reading companion to this text is the DSS translation by Wise, Abegg and Cook.

Many readers will enjoy this textbook that gives an overview of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It will help to guide novices and even more experienced readers through the meanders of the problems, establishing also the academic landmarks that indicate the limits of subjective interpretations.

The information the book contains can however be easily found elsewhere and in that respect is more helpful as a good reference book than as a goldmine of original thought.

This is not a book for readers who are hoping for fresh paths to be disclosed between the Scrolls and what came later.

I found the book to have great content. However, my number one critizim involves how it looks. As much as we want to say that we don't care how a book looks but its contents are the only thing that is important, well i believe that is not true. The book is extreemly boring looking, black and white photos and cheap paper. Although the content is good, I find my eyes getting very tired looking at the boring font and lack of color. That is all I have to say.

I have been facinated w/ the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran my entire life. I finally visited Israel, Qumran being one of the sites we visited. This is not a "guidebook", nor a tourist outline. It is a college-level textbook covering the entire topic of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is comprehensive, expansive and accurate, focusing on the scrolls from a more archeological point of view. It doesn't offer speculation or supposition, but rather reveals the discovery process, what was found and what it means archeologically. For anyone who wants to learn about the Dead Sea Scrolls, this is a must read.

There are introductions... and introductions to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most of them serve strange hypotheses. Because they hope to sell well, they are often creations espousing the authors' pet theories. Otherwise, they are academic and soporific. The discussion of Qumran archaeology, the biblical and sectarian texts themselves and their relationship to the canon and Jesus is fair, comprehensive for the layman, clear and level-headed. Flint and Vanderam's intro steers deftly between the Scylla of sensationalism and the Charybdis of dullness. It is well-organized, very readable, and...not expensive (as Scrolls literature, especially, academic ones, go).

Any beginning self-learner of the Scrolls and its secondary literature will benefit from this well-written book.