The scrolls have been the subject of unending fascination and controversy ever since their discovery in the Qumran caves beginning in 1947. Intensifying the debate, Professor Norman Golb now fundamentally challenges those who argue that the writings belonged to a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect. Instead, he shows why the scrolls must have been the work of many groups in ancient Judaism, kept in libraries in Jerusalem and smuggled out of the capital just before the Romans attacked in A.D. 70.

He eloquently portrays the spiritual fervor of the people who lived and wrote in the period between the great writings of the Hebrew Bible and the birth of the New Testament.

Golb backs up his ground-breaking interpretation with a careful reading of the texts and the archaeological findings. Bringing to scroll studies a vast knowledge of ancient history, he describes the scrolls' rich diversity of ideas, and offers a new interpretation of their significance for the evolution of both Judaism and Christianity.