The Hidden Scrolls

In this engrossing book, Neil Asher Silberman, noted writer and scholar, tells the double story of the Dead Sea Scrolls: the ancient saga of the people of the small province of Judea, whose fiercely nationalistic, Temple-centered religion was cruelly suppressed by the might of the Roman Empire; and the modern account of scholarly intrigue and political power plays swirling around one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century. The true significance of the scrolls, Silberman argues is as precious testimony to the Judeans' response to Roman oppression that was widespread at the time of Jesus: a revolutionary rage--accompanied by a passionate belief in the imminent arrival of a messiah--which was brutally crushed in the course of local uprisings against Rome. Both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, which arose from the ashes of destruction and exile, are but meek religions compared with the fervent faith expressed in the scrolls.

Dispassionate, readable, and lively, "The Hidden Scrolls adds energy and drama to the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls.