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A Biography
Princeton Univ. Press
October 2012
On Sale: October 8, 2012
288 pages ISBN: 0691143676 EAN: 9780691143675 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Since they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran in
1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused more
fascination--and more controversy--than perhaps any other
archaeological find. They appear to have been hidden in the
Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed
around the time of Jesus, and 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 startling discovery, and
sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and
Christian history. Collins vividly 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 broadly reflect the
Judaism of their time. And he unravels the impassioned
disputes surrounding the scrolls and Christianity. Do they
anticipate the early church? Do they undermine the
credibility of the Christian faith? Collins also looks at
attempts to "reclaim" the scrolls for Judaism after the full
corpus became available in the 1990s, and at how the
decades-long delay in publishing the scrolls gave rise to
sensational claims and conspiracy theories.
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