The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. By James VanderKam and Peter Flint (HarperSan-Francisco, $34.95). Now that all of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been published, V. and F. provide an up-to-date introduction in five parts: Discoveries, Dating, Archeology, and New Methods; The Dead Sea Scrolls and Scripture; The Nonbiblical Scrolls and their Message; The Scrolls and the New Testament; and Controversies about the Dead Sea Scrolls. A few gleanings: the Essenes were, after all, the community behind the scrolls; there are 222 biblical and 670 nonbiblical scrolls; John the Baptist may have had some contact with the Qumran community; the scroll writers align themselves with Jubilees and date festivals to a 364-day calendar; the covenanters expected a war in the future in which the Davidic messiah would lead the forces of good to victory and execute the leader of the armies of evil; DNA research will enable scholars to assign a number of tiny fragments to a particular scroll or to determine the number of skins from different animals that are used for the long scrolls; a scroll that was hailed a decade ago as announcing a slain messiah actually has the messiah killing his enemies. The authors provide a list of the best Web sites on the scrolls. Throughout, the book makes wise use of photographs and explanatory charts. This is hands-down the best introduction to the scrolls. RWK