F.F. Bruce’s account of finding the Dead Sea Scrolls and learning of their importance will make you feel as if you are making the discoveries yourself. Although first written fewer than ten years after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, this third edition (1964) is an excellent, readable introduction to «the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times.” F.F. Bruce’s balanced and thoughtful book answers the questions readers still want to know about the story, the Qumran community, the scrolls, and their significance for the histories of Judaism and Christianity and for biblical studies.
The book’s chapters:
1. The First Discoveries
2. Later Discoveries
3. Wadi Murabba’at and Khirbet Mird
4. Dating the Finds
5. Khirbet Qumran
6. The Scrolls and the Old Testament
7. Biblical Interpretation
8. The Messianic Hope
9. The Teacher of Righteousness and His Enemies
10. The Qumran Community
11. Qumran and the Essenes
12. Qumran and Christianity
“No matter at what point one brings the record of the Dead Sea discoveries to a provisional conclusion,” Bruce says, “it will be many years before ‘Finis’ can be written. Perhaps indeed all that is contained in the foregoing pages is only the beginning.” Although more details are now known about the Dead Sea Scrolls and they can now be viewed online, this is still one of the best introductions available.
