Dead Sea Scrolls, Religion & Spirituality 

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KIRKUS REVIEW
This provides a welcome overall of the controversial subject of the Dead Sea serolls, letting light on some of the facts behind the disagreements, and weighing the evidence. Dr. Burrows of Yale and his associates Professors Brownlee and Trevor, were connected with the American School of Oriental Research at Jerusalem in 1947, the year the scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin boy. Some were sold to the Syrian Monastery of St. Mark, some to the Hebrew University, some were still to be discovered -- and the determination of their authenticity, their date, their significance was as yet in the hands of scholars of many nations. Barriers to the answers were implicit in the issues between Jew and Arab, between British and American, between Jew and Christian- and, most profoundly, within the traditional barriers of the fundamentalists of all faiths and creeds. It is still difficult to breach these barriers, for acceptance of the age (now narrowed down to a span of years from approximately 150 BC to 65 AD) and authenticity (generally accepted) involves for Biblical scholars a new approach to both Old Testament and New. The scrolls include the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Psalms of Thanksgiving, the Book of the Forces of Light against the Forces of Darkness, the commentary on the Book of Habakkuk and the Manual of Discipline, variously identified as the code for the Essences (Burrows leans to this theory), or for the earlier Maccabeans, or for any one of several lesser known sects within the Jewish parties and sects. Dr. Burrows has not only explored numerous facets, their pros and cons, the successive episodes of discovery and the excavations that followed, but he has made- and here includes- the first complete (within the scope of the scrolls now deciphered -- countless fragments are still being studied) English translation. Those scrolls belonging to the Hebrew University have been published in the Hebrew text, with notes by Prof. Sukenik, who died before the commentary was completed, and whose son is working on an English edition. Dr. Burrows' work views the scrolls possibly more from the viewpoint of a scholar concerned with the language, the internal evidence, the substance on which the scrolls were written, the script, the possibility of identifying known historical facts and individuals, etc. than with the spiritual interpretations and connotations. He wisely keeps relatively aloof from the sharp issues drawn by Jewish and by Christian scholars on the extent to which Biblical scholarship is challenged, though many of the factors are here presented, without final conclusions or opinions. Perhaps the average layman will feel that here is more about the Dead Sea scrolls than he needs to read. But there is so much that is exciting reading that I, for one, found it very rewarding though often difficult. For scholars willing to admit the possible fallacies in earlier findings this is a Must. 

Hardcover. Good-fair, dirty.

221.44
Religion > Bible > Old Testament > Original texts and early versions; Codices > Dead Sea Scrolls--Old Testament works in

BM487 .B78
Philosophy. Psychology. Religion: Judaism: Pre-Talmudic Jewish literature (non-Biblical)