The dead sea scrolls a biography

  • John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their startling discovery, and sheds light on their true.
  • In this concise and accessible book, John Collins tells the story of the scrolls and the bitter conflicts that have swirled around them since their startling.
  • Unraveling the controversies surrounding the Dead Sea ScrollsSince they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran in , the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused more fascination—and controversy—than perhaps any other archaeological find.

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    The Dead Sea Scrolls - A Biography by John J.

    Book review: “The “Dead Sea Scrolls”: A Biography” by John J. Collins The discovery of 2,year-old Biblical and other religious scrolls in a cave near Jericho, just west of the Dead Sea, in , caused a sensation. The excitement only grew as other caves with other ancient writings were found over the next decade. By , some nine hundred documents — some full manuscripts, many only fragments — had been located. Together, they were called the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls may seem to be an unlikely candidate for inclusion in a series on “biographies” of books. The Scrolls are not in fact one book, but a miscellaneous collection of writings…written mostly in Hebrew, with some in Aramaic and a small number in Greek. They date from the last two centuries [BC} and the first century [AD]. So writes John J. Collins, a Yale University expert on the Scrolls, in the preface to The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, one of 15 books published so far in the delightful Princeton University Press series called Lives of Great Religious Books. Among the spiritual classics that have already been examined in the series are The Tibetan Book of the Dead and The Bhagavad Gita, as well as Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and the Book of Job and the Boo

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    The Dead Neptune's Scrolls: A Biography

    Unraveling interpretation controversies neighbouring the Hesitate Sea Scrolls

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    The Dead Sea Scrolls:
 A Biography


    John J. Collins, the Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation

    (Princeton University Press)

    The Dead Sea Scrolls — discovered in caves at Qumran in — appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus. They continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history.

    Collins recounts how a Bedouin shepherd went searching for a lost goat and found the scrolls instead. He offers insight into debates over whether the Essenes were an authentic Jewish sect and explains why such questions are critical to our understanding of ancient Judaism and to Jewish identity. Collins explores whether the scrolls were indeed the property of an isolated, quasi-monastic community living at Qumran, or whether they more

  • the dead sea scrolls a biography