The story of the Dead Sea Scrolls runs the gamut of adventureΓÇôfrom high scholarship to low dudgeon and all points in between. The saga of the discovery and final acquisition of the scrolls by the scholarly community is as exciting as an Indiana Jones movie. But seriously, the content of the scrolls, aptly described as the greatest archaeological find of the century, has been slowly transforming the way we understand late Second Temple Judaism and the background of early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. The sometimes comic, sometimes painful story of scholarly greed that kept many of the fragments from the public for more than a generation is another facet of this endlessly fascinating story, which has captivated the general public as well as the scholarly community. The mysteries of the excavation of the Qumran settlement, the lack of a final report and conflicting interpretations of the remains are all part of the Dead Sea Scrolls story.
