posted on November 17, 2001 12:30:00 PM
I heard that the Dead Sea Scrolls have been interpreted and will be available in 12 or so volumes. Is anyone familiar with the content of the scrolls?
"The scrolls and scroll fragments recovered in the Qumran environs represent a voluminous body of Jewish documents, a veritable "library", dating from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E. Unquestionably, the "library," which is the greatest manuscript find of the twentieth century, demonstrates the rich literary activity of Second Temple Period Jewry and sheds insight into centuries pivotal to both Judaism and Christianity. The library contains some books or works in a large number of copies, yet others are represented only fragmentarily by mere scraps of parchment. There are tens of thousands of scroll fragments. The number of different compositions represented is almost one thousand, and they are written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek."
There are a dozen links on this site (The Qumran Library) to actual fragments of the scrolls, as well as text analysis.
posted on November 17, 2001 03:25:46 PM
Thanks plsmith. You sure come up with some great links. I'm only about half way through the Nazi/Kennedy link....takes awhile to understand it all.
posted on November 17, 2001 04:51:39 PM
The museum built to display and store the Dead Sea Scrolls is really incredible. Very unusual in appearance, from the inside as well as the outside. I have a book about the museum and the cover picture is so striking, it's one of the most beautiful and unusual buildings I've ever seen (unfortunately I've only seen it in a photo).
posted on November 18, 2001 12:43:30 AM
You're most welcome, Krafty, and I agree, Mae Brussell's rambling, conversational style is sometimes difficult to follow. Her radio program transcripts are a hoot
