The Dead Sea Scrolls Controversy: How it Happened and Where it Stands Today : [public lecture]

Abstract

During the past half century, there has, surprisingly, been a remarkable development of interest in the subject of Hebrew manuscripts and their effect on our knowledge of past history. Undoubtedly, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has played the major role in this development, and well it should have – for people in many countries around the world have felt personally connected to the very contents of these texts, whether for religious or purely humanistic reasons. It is quite likely the spillover from this effect that has in recent decades aroused many scholars and students to awaken from a certain lethargy and ponder the valuable new insights that await them from a perusal of still other old Hebrew manuscripts – both those never before published, and others once condemned as mere forgeries or deviations from a view of history thought to be certain beyond doubt. I will deal in my final two lectures with some of the most important of these latter texts, while concentrating this evening on that most compelling of topics, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the controversy that now envelops them.