The Riddle of the Scrolls (Kegan Paul Library of Arcana)

Since the 1948 discovery of Hebrew manuscripts in a cave in the Judean Desert, many studies have been undertaken to determine the nature and origin of the texts. The author of this fascinating work discusses possible authors of the manuscripts, the problems of translating Hebrew texts, and the theory that these particular manuscripts belong to a category of works known as genuzim, or things hidden away, in this case because they were not considered canonical in Palestine and could not be kept in a traditional library. Seven texts are included intranslation with explanatory notes, offering the reader an opportunity to study the manuscripts closely. First published in 2007. Reading like a detective thriller involving the highest of stakes, this is the story of a discovery that is still to be fully realised one that has split the scholarly community worldwide and which may yet transform our understanding of two of the world's religious faiths. The manuscripts known collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls have been the subject of controversy ever since the discovery of the first texts in a cave in the Judean Desert at Khirbet Qumran in 197. The precise details of this find and the story of what happened to these manuscripts and many others found subsequently on other sites were shrouded in mystery, partly because some were uncovered during illegal explorations which destroyed important evidence of provenance and partly because it soon became apparent that the contents of the scrolls themselves were highly sensitive, consisting of religious texts, many previously unknown. Today there are several hundred documents and fragments that are considered Dead Sea Scrolls, Del Medico's classic work provides the best and clearest background to the continuing riddle of the scrolls.