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

by Hershel Shanks

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.

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Christianity, Biblical Studies, Spirituality

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 1992

Reviews

[Welles Bristol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating review of this mysterious discovery I read shortly after its publication in the 90’s. Just when religious doctrinaires have it all figured out, history throws a curveball. :-)

[Duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boy, was *this* a read.

I of course as always came away with completely different impressions than anyone else, but, apologies for being on an orthogonal trajectory from the rest of humanity aside,,, :

The descriptions of infighting among supposed "scholars" who had the unbelievable good fortune and privilege of being able to do the original work on the Scrolls was *really* enlightening - and strongly reaffirmed my cynicism about "scholars" - who in this telling come across as basically just overgrown children with no life outside their discipline. Their behavior is just appalling and they all ought to be driven out into the desert to ponder their worthlessness.

That said... at least they got *something* out that we can make use of. And Shanks himself is a real character, whom we're lucky to have, to somehow make sense of the infantile squabbling of all the so-called "experts". (He must be some sort of saint, to even be able to put up with them... .)

This book sure conveys an eye-opening impression of early Judaism, as well. The (squabbling) "experts" are still in disagreement about whether the Qumran sect were Essenes, Sadducees, Zadokites, or whatever else, but for my part I was merely astonished to find out that there were so many different flavors of bearded geezers back then, all vehemently disagreeing and squabbling and forming "Sects" so they could trash other's ideas and philosophies on a more formal basis. I kept having this recurring image of bearded geezers standing around yelling at each other and shaking their fists (and scrolls) at each other, in some Jewish forum somewhere 2000 years ago, while in the distance you could hear the TRAMP-TRAMP-TRAMP of the approaching legions of Rome, about to make all of their arguments sort of... well, "moot", I guess...

Something else that really hit home with me was the realization of how important getting a tradition down in writing must have been back then. Without the writings, people not living to age 40 and the constant warfare and disruption and God knows what else would probably do away with nearly any attempt at continuity from one generation to the next. Everybody takes all the "printed" information we have today for granted, but BITD the writings, were in a sense, probably more important even than the lives of those who wrote them.

So it then comes as no surprise that "they" stashed all this stuff in those caves - and that there was such a variety of it, the origins of which remain debatable. But the debate over who "they" were, becomes almost irrelevant - the caves there were undoubtedly a repository for anyone in Israel who wanted to preserve *any* writings against the inevitable eventuality of the Jews getting overrun (again), mid-squabble, by the Romans or the Assyrians or the Babylonians or the Martians or *whoever*...

(Let's see... How many times did I say "Squabble" in here? no matter, no number of repetitions would be sufficient... .)

[Phillip Mast · Rating 5 out of 5]

I let this book collect dust on my shelf for a while because I thought it looked boring. That impression was partially correct but I was happy to see that it is fairly readable. Most importantly, it has a lot of info that I'm very interested in such as the formation of the old testament scripture, the state of first century Judaism, and the complicated story of how these scroll were discovered and published.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. Gives a lot of background about the discovery of the scrolls, the controversies surrounding their interpretation, the biases among Jewish, Christian and Agnostic scholars, the role of Vatican scholars, and some revelations about the meaning of the scrolls with regard to the bible, Judaism and Christianity. Also gives some background into the Essenes, the Zealots, Pharisees and Sadducees and their rivalries and opposing beliefs and practices in the pre-Christian era.

[David Tee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hershel Shanks was one of the primary forces that got the Dead Sea scrolls out of the hands of a limited amount of scholars. This book does not detail that battle but is an excellent read when you want to know more about the DSS and their importance to the biblical world.

[Mathher Abbassi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of the book is misleading. I was expecting explanations to the scrolls and how they fit or don't fit the current Bible's text. The book is the history of the scrolls and the people who worked on them. Most of the book can be eliminated or shortened.

[Giana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, really made me think and changed the way I viewed religion and challenged some of the things I knew about it

[Milay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good information on the history of this discovery with lots of emphasis on the long pre-publication period.

Overall not as objective as I hoped. In fact down right biased at the point where the author states that he dismisses any theories concerning the secrecy and reluctance to publish the texts by the scholars and proprietors of the scrolls due to fear of undermining the foundations of Christianity and Judaism.

Personally I feel a bit discouraged at this point since I think that any given piece of literature I pick up on the subject will either be lightly or completely biased towards a particular religious view.

[Roger Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent and informative book. In my reading around the Dead Sea Scrolls it appears the language around a "normative" Judaism is shifting due to more and more study of the Qumran community (communities?) and texts. Several variants or Judaisms can be identified, which challenges predominant views based on a "normative" Masoretic text tradition. Shanks / some of the scholarls in his collection at times use the hegemonic language but the information is really helpful.

[Elzira Rai · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but unbalanced introduction to the DSS. While the idea of tackling the DSS from multiple angles sounds very promising, too much space is devoted to irrelevant topics involving the discovery, purchase and acquisition of the manuscripts, or even the alleged antisemitism of the former DSS editor-in-chief, stealing precious pages from more important issues regarding the content of the manuscripts themselves.

[Todd Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I have really enjoyed this stuff; it's like watching the Naked Archeologist. Hey now! Emphasis on archeologist!

[Timothy]

I still don't understand. Maybe if I read aramaic....

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, lots of different views and theories.

[Philippe Jonquet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intéressant. Par contre, le style est un peu brouillon.