The Dead Sea Scrolls

[alarimer]

I received this book and Misquoting Jesus from QPB because I didn't reply in time and I am wondering whether they are worth reading or if I should send them back. Normally, these are not the sort of books I would buy for myself, not having a great deal of interest in religion, except in historical context. The Dead Sea Scrolls book is a new translation. I admit I don;t knoe very much about them and I don't know whether I can even get through it. Has anyone read them?

[thecrow]

1. I sent them back

[bhikkhu]

2. if you want historical context...

and don't mind a long and thorough read, try Eisenman's "James the Brother of Jesus". The author does have his ax to grind, but is a vastly literate researcher and delves into so many primary documents and diverse sources that it is almost necessary to take notes to keep track of where each point of argument started and how it relates to previous points.

His style is a challenge, but he does make a thorough case, and sheds light on the people and the times in the process as no other author I have read does.

[alarimer]

3. at some point I will get to these

Because, damn it, I had to pay for them. I don't check the website often enough and sometimes miss the deadline for replying to the main selection. I just waited too long to send them back. But it might be interesting too.

[Truebrit71sbruv]

4. If you don't mind forwarding them to Denmark

I'd be very interested in getting sight of them! But recent English-language work on the recontextualisation of relious figures in an historical context are as rare as rocking-horse manure in Denmark!

:)

[On the Road]

5. I Heard Erdman Interviewed on NPR

and he was pretty good. His book is not overly technical, but it's not overly simplistic, either.

The subject has to do with variant passages in the Gospels, and trying to determine the original version. One of the most famous examples is the voice from heaven which follows Jesus' baptism by John. Most translations read "You are my Son, in whom I am well pleased." A smaller number say "You are my Son; today I have begotten you."

It is highly liklely that the second is the original. However, it suggests an adoptionist Christology, meaning that Jesus was a human being whom God adopted at a certain point in his life. That conflicted with the view of Jesus that came to be commonly accepted, namely that he is part of the Trinity and existed in divine form before he was born. As a result, the wording of Gospel had to be changed.

If that type of thing interests you, you will probably like the book.

------------------

As far as the Dead Sea Scrolls go, they are absolutely fascinating documents, but I personally find them difficult to read. Some of the material is esoteric; some is concerned with day-to-day workings of a religious community; some are Psalms. Some is fragmentary and has a part of each line missing. The significance is not always apparent to the layman.

When selecting books about the Dead Sea Scrolls, it helps to understand the controversies surrounding the documents and the author's place in those controversies. The official version is that the DSS were produced by an ascetic religious community at Qumran who lived in the 2nd century BC and is almost irrelevant to the development of modern Judaism or Christianity.

That interpretation has come under attack archaeological, theological, and historical grounds. Some scholars like Norman Golb ("Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?") argue convincingly that the DSS were written in Jerusalem by a variety of authors and moved to Quram to protect them during the Roman assault in 66 AD.

Robert Eisenman, who fought for years to make the original scrolls public, argues that the "Teacher of Righteousness" described in some of the documents is James the brother of Jesus. That is a minority view, and carbon dating suggests those documents may be earlier. However, he brings to bear a vast array of almost unknown material in order to make his case, and his book is absolutely unique and invaluable from that point of view (I have read it twice). His picture of Jesus and the early Church is almost unrecognizable from the books of Acts, but has much to recommend it.

There are other popular books, such as Michael Baigent's Dead Sea Scroll Deception, which support Eisenman, but develop further the links between the original Jewish followers of Jesus and later groups like the Essenes, Nazirites or Nazarenes.

Personally I love this stuff even though I'm no longer a religious person. But it leaves many people cold.

[flamingyouth]

6. Is it this translation of the Scrolls?

http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Sea-Scrolls-Revised-Translation/dp/006076662X/sr=1-1/qid=1162516600/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6061428-2127356?ie=UTF8&s=books

We went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls last night at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and we picked up this book in the gift shop afterward. I have the Penguin translation but wanted to get a version that included the never-before published material (yes, I am a geek).

[Critical_Reader]

7. New Dead Sea Scrolls controversy over Seattle exhibit

There's an interesting discussion of the current Pacific Science Center exhibit at http://pacific-science-scrolls-scandal.blogspot.com/
and there is now also a lengthy critical review of the exhibit on the University of Chicago website, written by Norman Golb, one of the world's leading scrolls experts.
Ironically, it appears that in Seattle the exhibit is being treated as a resounding public relations success, even though it was apparently designed to hide all the latest developments in scrolls research from the public.