The Dead Sea Scrolls

Sound Bite

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a puzzle. What time frame do they cover, and whom do they refer to? Very few scholars have examined the period from 37 BC to AD 71 as the possible setting for the scrolls. Nevertheless, the scrolls allude to events that only have real relevance in this time period This book on the Dead Sea Scrolls presents a theory that connects Scroll allusions to personages and events in that period and suggests a new view on how and why the Romans crucified Jesus.

About the Book

Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? Paleographical dating has tended to downplay the Scrolls' importance and to distance them from the personages of earliest Christianity, but a carefully worked out theory based on radiocarbon dating and other tests connects Scroll allusions to personages and events in a specific time period and suggests a new view on how and why the Romans crucified Jesus. Part I of this study is an attempt to deal more realistically with the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls; very few scholars have ever examined the period from 37 BC to AD 71 as the possible setting for the scrolls. Nevertheless, everyone would admit the existence of scroll allusions that only have real relevance in this time period. Part II takes up Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity.Having researched the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and studied the details of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity, the author has come to a startling conclusion. Admittedly, the explanation put forward in this work as to how and why the Romans crucified Jesus is a surprising one and we will not divulge it in this synopsis. The way the author sees it, if something like that explanation did not take place, then it is simply inexplicable why the Romans would have crucified Jesus - a peaceful teacher and healer - as a rebel. The only alternative would then have to be that the historical Jesus was really a political revolutionary who attempted in some way to free Israel from the Romans and become its King, a theory that has been offered in various forms beginning in the 18th century. But if he was indeed a rebel, then the later Christians, who strenuously strove to live at peace with Rome, must have been the actual creators of the pacifistic Jesus of the New Testament -- and these unique and time-honored teachings of peace, non-violence, and love were fabrications. That seems less credible than the compelling hypothesis proposed in this work.Bibliography, Index

Table content

Part I. The Dead Sea Scrolls Chapter 1. Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? Chapter 2. The Baptism of John Chapter 3. John's Food and Dress Chapter 4. The First Ones Chapter 5. Zadok Chapter 6. John the Baptist Chapter 7. Dositheus Chapter 8. James the Righteous Leaders of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect Leaders before the New CovenantLeaders of the New CovenantFuture Leader of the New Covenant Chapter 9. The Hymn Scroll Chapter 10. The Kittim Chapter 11. The Lion of Wrath Chapter 12. Herod, Agrippa I, And Agrippa Ii Chapter 13. The Coming Visitation Chapter 14. Khirbet Qumran and the Scrolls Part II. Christianity Chapter 15. The Family Oo Jesus Chapter 16. Microletters Chapter17. The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus Chapter 18. The Hypothesis Chapter 19. The Slavonic Josephus Chapter 20. The Fate of the Son of Joseph Chapter 21. Simon Magus Chapter 22. Saul, Paul, The Pillars, And the Twelve Chapter 23. The Creation of Christianity Bibliography Index