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Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeological Review (1992) is a volume edited by Hershel Shanks.

Abstract

"A sourcebook of articles by the world's leading Dead Sea Scroll authorities ... Ever since their initial discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused excitement, jealousy, and not a little dread among some who were afraid 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 group of scholars. However, in 1991 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?"--Publisher description.

Editions

Published in the United States (New York: Random House, 1992). Reissued (New York: Vintage, 1993).

Translations

• Η Περιπέτεια των Χειρογράφων της Νεκρής Θάλασσας (1997 Shanks / Lappa, Kekropoulou), edited volume (Greek ed.)

• L'aventure des manuscrits de la mer Morte = Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls (1996 @1992 Shanks / Carteron), edited volume (French ed.)

• Los manuscritos del Mar Muerto (2005 Shanks), edited volume (Spanish ed.)

Contents

• Discovering the scrolls / Harry Thomas Frank
• The historical context of the scrolls / Frank Moore Cross
• The Sadducean origins of the Dead Sea scroll sect / Lawrence H. Schiffman
• The people of the Dead Sea scrolls : Essenes or Sadducees? / James C. VanderKam
• "First Dead Sea scroll" found in Egypt fifty years before Qumran discoveries / Raphael Levy
• Essene origins : Palestine or Babylonia? / Hershel Shanks
• The temple scroll : the longest Dead Sea scroll / Yigael Yadin
• The gigantic dimensions of the visionary temple in the temple scroll / Magen Broshi
• Intrigue and the scroll / Hershel Shanks
• Is the temple scroll a sixth book of the Torah, lost for 2,500 years? / Hartmut Stegemann
• The text behind the text of the Hebrew Bible ; Light on the Bible from the Dead Sea caves / Frank Moore Cross
• When the sons of God cavorted with the daughters of men / Ronald S. Hendel
• The Dead Sea scrolls and Christianity / James C. VanderKam
• An unpublished Dead Sea scroll text parallels Luke's infancy narrative / Hershel Shanks
• Was John the Baptist an Essene? / Otto Betz
• New light on the Pharisees / Lawrence H. Schiffman
• The mystery of the copper scroll / P. Kyle McCarter, Jr.
• How to connect Dead Sea scroll fragments / Hartmut Stegemann
• Interview with chief scroll editor John Strugnell / Avi Katzman
• Silence, anti-semitism, and the scrolls ; Is the Vatican suppressing the Dead Sea scrolls? / Hershel Shanks

External links