Dr. Norman Golb's classic study on the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls is now available online.<br><br>Since their earliest discovery in 1947, the Scrolls have been the object of fascination and extreme controversy. <br><br>Challenging traditional dogma, Golb has been the leading proponent of the view that the Scrolls cannot be the work of a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect, as various earlier scholars had claimed, but are in all likelihood the remains of libraries of various Jewish groups, smuggled out of Jerusalem and hidden in desert caves during the Roman siege of 70 A. D.<br><br>Contributing to the enduring debate sparked by the book's original publication in 1995, this digital edition contains additional material reporting on new developments that have led a series of major Israeli and European archaeologists to support Golb's basic conclusions.<br><br>In its second half, the book offers a detailed analysis of the workings of the scholarly monopoly that controlled the Scrolls for many years, and discusses Golb's role in the struggle to make the texts available to the public. Pleading for an end to academic politics and a commitment to the search for truth in scrolls scholarship, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? sets a new standard for studies in intertestamental history<br><br>"This book is 'must reading'.... It demonstrates how a particular interpretation of an ancient site and particular readings of ancient documents became a straitjacket for subsequent discussion of what is arguably the most widely publicized set of discoveries in the history of biblical archaeology...." Dr. Gregory T. Armstrong, 'Church History'<br><br>Golb "gives us much more than just a fresh and convincing interpretation of the origin and significance of the Qumran Scrolls. His book is also… a fascinating case-study of how an idée fixe, for which there is no real historical justification, has for over 40 years dominated an elite coterie of scholars controlling the Scrolls...." Daniel O'Hara, 'New Humanist'
Оглавление
Norman Boone's Golb. Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Foreword
PART I
A NEW THEORY OF SCROLL ORIGINS. Chapter 1 – The Qumran Plateau
Chapter 2 – The Manuscripts of the Jews
Chapter 3 – 1947: The First Scroll Discoveries
Chapter 4 – The Qumran-Essene Theory: A Paradigm Reconsidered
Chapter 5 – The Copper Scroll, the Masada Manuscripts, and the Siege of Jerusalem
Chapter 6 – Scroll Origins: Rengstorf’s Theory and Edmund Wilson’s Response
PART II
SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS. Chapter 7 – The Temple Scroll, the Acts of Torah, and the Qumranologists’ Dilemma
Chapter 8 – Power Politics and the Collapse of the Scrolls Monopoly
Chapter 9 – Myth and Science in the World of Qumranology
Chapter 10 – The Deepening Scrolls Controversy
Chapter 11 – The New York Conference and Some Academic Intrigues
Chapter 12 – The Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls
EPILOGUE: Judaism, Christianity,and the Scrolls
Afterword
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Отрывок из книги
The study of old manuscripts is not a popular subject at universities, and until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it was not one that the public followed closely. Starting in 1947 there has been a notable change in the cultural atmosphere. Reading about the discoveries taking place in the Judaean Wilderness and later perusing some of the texts, a wide audience began to perceive how much of the history of two great religions, and of those times in general, was shrouded in silence. By piecing together fragments of long-lost writings, magnifying bits of words and letters, and slowly building new vocabularies of meaning and connotation, students of ancient languages and civilizations were laying the foundation for a better understanding of the past and casting new light on it. It was apparent that such understanding was the result of a dynamic process, achieved through discovery and the fundamental investigation of ancient sources.
This public awareness of the value of ancient manuscripts probably would not have occurred except for the particular circumstance that those texts were what they were, and were found where they were found. The Greek papyri of Egypt discovered in such relative abundance during the past two centuries, the fifteen hundred Greek and Latin scrolls brought out from under the lava of Herculanaeum, the remarkable Coptic gnostic manuscripts revealed virtually at the same time as the first Qumran scrolls, the multitude of medieval Hebrew treasures extracted from the Cairo Genizah—all these together never moved the Western world as did the treasures from the caves near the Dead Sea. The wisdom of the Greeks and Romans, their literary treasures, formed a cultural monument powerfully shaping European consciousness—and yet in our own century, prevailing at the heart of this consciousness, were the values articulated by writers of the ancient Hebrew books forming the Bible of the Jews. Lying behind the social and intellectual vigor of the Jewish people in antiquity, those books and values had acted as a mesmerizing force upon the Hellenistic world when it conquered Palestine and then in turn was conquered by the faiths of its inhabitants, as first Judaism and then a nascent Christianity placed their indelible stamp on the Roman empire. The West will not tire of seeking to solve what remains the profound puzzle of its own metamorphosis into its Jewish and Christian self, and no other discoveries of modern times have approached the scrolls in their potential for casting light on that remarkable phenomenon.
.....
I owe a debt of gratitude as well to Mark Chimsky, formerly editor-in-chief of Collier Books and my editor at Macmillan, for his goodwill, unceasing encouragement, and most perceptive advice regarding the style and flow of the following chapters. His assistant, Rob Henderson, was of aid in countless ways during all stages of preparation of the manuscript. I am also grateful to my editor at Scribner, William Goldstein, for his important help in the final stages of the book’s preparation.
Yet it would be absurd to think that I could have written this book without constant return to Israel for both shorter and longer periods of study. The many friends and colleagues there who have encouraged my investigations include, first and foremost, Yehoshua Blau, Israel Eph’al, Moshe Gil, Joel Kraemer, and Ya’acov Shavit, as well as the late Menahem Banitt, Michael Klein, and Shelomo Morag. I particularly wish to salute my fellow members of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies—themselves for the most part living and working in Israel—whose incisive scholarship and collegial goodwill continue to be a source of pride and sustenance of spirit.
