Who Wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls?: The Search For The Secret Of Qumran

This 1995 book should have been the stake in the heart of the theory of a so-called 'Qumran community of Essenes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls'; revealing, as it does, the promoters of that bankrupt theory to be mostly scholarly charlatans -- masquerading behind academic credentials -- of the most religiously bigoted variety. (Roman Catholic? Jewish? Protestant? It makes no difference. The Scrolls' origins, translations, and interpretations seem to be the sole study in which religious bigots of all Judeo-Christian persuasions can strike an ecumenical accord.) As a result of strident proselytizing and unscholarly -- sometimes immoral and illegal -- activities, the 'consensus view' of the 'Qumran-Essene scribes' is unfortunately alive and thriving today in many scholarly circles; which means, perforce, that it is a 'given' in lay circles. Sad. Maybe another half century will see its final demise.I have a single beef with this terrific book, and that is with the somewhat gratuitous pondering, toward the end of the book, about the effects of the Dead Sea Scrolls on the study of early Christianity. In the process of tackling this huge subject in merely a few paragraphs, Golb refuses to distinguish between early Judeo-Christianity and the full-blown, Hellenic/Roman Christianity of Paul and Constantine. In refusing to do so, Golb -- a bit perversely, it seems -- practices very well that same scholarly obtuseness and obfuscation that he has just spent hundreds of pages castigating. He should have foregone the publication of these half-formed musings.Otherwise, I think that everyone who is interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls should read this book; and then that same everyone should not delay in taking advantage of the Internet to send scolding letters to the scoundrels who managed to suppress the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls for exactly half a century after the discovery of the first seven scrolls. You might want to mention in your letters that these rogues are still, after the publication of the Scrolls, almost managing to suppress any and all discussion of their flawed translations and interpretations of the Qumran fragments. I think that these ladies and gentlemen -- the only honorifics that I will accord them -- should know that we do not like to be told lies.

It destroys the Qumran Community theory.

If you are interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls, evolution of early Christianity or rabbinic Judaism , history of the intertestamental period, or archeology of the Middle East, this is a must read. Dr. Golb describes in a technical but very readable way the sad saga of academic misconduct, biased research and mismanagement of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other texts found in Palestine near Khirbet Qumran, Masada and locations in between. The author end with his view that the future scholarship on these important texts will be more objective and yield fruitful results. I had to look up many of the technical terms but thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish that I had discovered and read this book before my trip to Israel/Palestine or read books about the Scrolls

This book represents the minority view on Who Wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls. In my view, it iswell worth the effort, whether you agree or disagree, to examine another point of view. It's notan easy read, and I haven't yet finished the book, but it has my attention. Lots of notes and referencesfor further study. To answer the question, I don't think we'll ever know WHO wrote the DSS. (That's my opinion.)But it's fun to work on the puzzle.

Golb gives a very cogently argument for his theory that the Dead Sea scrolls come not from Qumran but from libraries in Jerusalem prior to its fall in 70 CE. I don't necessarily believe him but his strongly evidence based approach has definitely left me with a lot to think about.