The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judean desert between 1947 and 1956 was one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. Hidden in the caves at Qumran by the Essenes, a Jewish sect in existence before and during the time of Jesus, the Scrolls have transformed our understanding of the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and the origins of Christianity. This fully revised edition of the classic English translation by Geza Vermes, the world's leading scholar on the subject, offers an astonishing look into the organization, customs, and beliefs of the community at Qumran. Enhanced by much previously unpublished material and a new preface, this will remain the authoritative translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls for years to come.
It's been 50 years since a Bedouin youth named Muhammed edh-Dhub went looking for a stray sheep and instead found the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the intervening decades, the scrolls have been enveloped in a storm of controversy and bitter conflict: the scholars entrusted with translating and editing the texts sat on many of them instead, creating suspicions that escalated to conspiracy theories about supposed cover-ups of sensitive, even damaging material. Geza Vermes, a former professor of Jewish studies at Oxford and a noted authority on the scrolls, marks the 50th anniversary of Muhammed edh-Dhub's find with his book The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English; the title, however, is misleading, for the collection of documents is by no means complete.
Vermes has left out the copies of Hebrew scriptures that are available elsewhere, instead focusing on the sectarian writings of the Essene community at Qumran and the intertestemental texts, and these are indeed complete translations. Vermes has also included an overview of five decades of research on the scrolls and a thumbnail sketch of the Qumran community's history and religion. For anyone interested in biblical history, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English is a worthwhile read.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Not quite "complete" - missing manuscripts:
I just bought this edition Feb 2010. As useful as the book might yet be, Vermes and his reviewers seem to have inadvertently omitted:
4Q387a Pseudo-Moses^b,
4Q388a Pseudo-Moses^c,
4Q389 Pseudo-Moses^d They are listed in the scroll catalogue but do not appear where the table of contents reports Second Ezekiel (4Q385-91) p. 571, nor are they adjacent to Pseudo Moses (4Q390) p. 543 nor anywhere else, nor listed in the index. The Apocryphon of Jacob (4QAJa ar) or Visions of... more info
Dead Sea Scrolls:
This book was advertised as slightly used, but it was a disaster! The pages from the center on are not consecutive and the book is useless once you get into it since this bindery error. I should go to secure a full refund.
the complete dead sea scrolls in english:
I have only scanned this book so far so I do not feel that I can give it a fair raiting as of yet.
A must for every true Bible scholar:
As a finance student I bought this book for purely personal reasons. I think that it is an essential part of any personal library. It is well organized by genre and includes maps of each cave where the scrolls were found.
