Who Wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls?: The Search For The Secret Of Qumran

by Norman Golb

In Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? Professor Norman Golb intensifies the debate over the scrolls' origins, arguing that they were not the work of a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect but written by different groups of Jews and the smuggled out of Jerusalem's libraries

Norman Golb unravels the mystery behind the scholarly monopoly that controlled the scrolls for many years, and discusses his role as a key player in the successful struggle to make the scrolls widely available to both scholars and students.

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Christianity, Judaism

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Norman Golb (b. 1928) is the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

Reviews

[Noella · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Gestopt op blz. 81. Te ingewikkeld en te gedetailleerd voor mij om zonder voldoende voorkennis te lezen.

[Zane Akers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Golb totally convinced me that his interpretation, which cuts counter to the mainline theory, has far more explanatory power and doesn't require new ad hoc patches every time a new text is translated. And while I agree the texts have been mightily mishandled by the official cadre, I don't agree with Golb's decision to dedicate the second half of the book to an exhaustive 50 year catalog of all the wrongs done to him by various close-minded scholars. A few stories to indicate their unwillingness to engage in the work of history and of their buttheadedness would have sufficed.

[Robert Anton-Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important contribution to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Both a compelling argument for the author's explanation of the existence of the Scrolls, and a scathing indictment of the entrenchment of ideas by an academic elite.

[Erneilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Controversial conclusion but Dr. Golb presents a good argument. It is technically difficult reading for the non-student or those not initiated into the complexities of deciphering ancient records so it took me some time to wade through it.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book represents something of an odyssey for me. It was in my late uncle's collection. I have had this book since his death in 1999. I took it from Long Island to Colorado. It rested on the bottom shelf of one of my bookshelves -- you know that bottom shelf with other neglected books behind the guitar case and amplifier. Then earlier this year I found out that the Dead Sea scrolls were coming to the Denver Nature and Science Museum. Wait, I have book about that! That is the value of a personal library. After nineteen years, I grabbed this book from the bottom shelf. I don't know if my uncle ever read it. It still looked unread to me, but I am one of those people who really mark up their books with marginalia, underlining, dog-eared pages, etc., and maybe he was not. In any event, I felt a deep connection to him merely by holding and reading this book. Anyway, Golb argues that the Dead Sea scrolls were not the product of the Essenes, but represented the writings of the Jewish community prior to the the first revolt against the Romans. Once the Romans besieged Jerusalem, the temple and other communities hid their writings in the caves around Qumran. There is a lot more detail on this and a lot of arguments over the historiography of the debate of the Qumran discoveries. The scrolls, he argues, is not the product of a single community, but represented diverse sects in ancient Judaism. I am looking forward to see the exhibition in the Denver Nature and Science Museum.

[Judy]

An interesting viewpoint which espouses the idea that the scrolls must have been the works of many different groups in ancient Judaism. For example, they are not original documents, they are diverse, and they have approximately 500 differing handwritings. For Golb, this is proof that they could not have been written in a tightly-knit Essene group at Qumran. Golb argues that these were scrolls kept in libraries in Jerusalem, but were smuggled out of the capital just before the Romans attacked in AD 70.

[Janice Salmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated with the Dead Sea scrolls, and I took the time to visit and view some in the Glasgow museum. This book was way above my intellect and I never thought I was dumb as a nursing professional. I never got the answer I was seeking, maybe because it was never settled???

[Steve Maus · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's gets hard and slow in the middle, but it's good. It's fascinating to hear the author's account of his attempts to stick with the facts of the situation, and the 'other camp's' efforts at holding to the original theories, regardless of logic or reason.

[Erin]

Sorta. Like my other 'currently reading' -- this is gonna take a while.

[Susan Y, · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far this book is fascinating and seem very authoritative.