The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld for over 35 Years [Hardcover]

Robert H. Eisenman (Author, Editor), Michael Wise (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1992

The first scholar--aside from those at the Huntington Library in California--to have access to the Dead Sea Scrolls translates seventy-five of the most important manuscripts into Hebrew and English and includes a short analysis of each piece.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New evidence of ancient religion is unveiled in this PW religious bestseller. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The continuing interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls is due in part to the controversy surrounding their interpretation. Specifically, attention is focused upon the importance of previously unpublished texts in reconstructing the history of early Christianity. Some say there is little or nothing of interest in the remaining fragments; others insist that they are of monumental importance. By far the largest cache of these fragments is the one discovered in Qumran cave 4, from which authors Eisenman (Middle East religions, California State Univ.-Long Beach) and Wise (Near Eastern languages and civilization, Univ. of Chicago) have reconstructed 50 texts. For each text, they have provided a transcription into modern Hebrew characters, a translation, and commentary on the text's significance. Significantly, these documents indicate a close relationship between the Zealot Qumran community and the Jewish Christian community under the leadership of James, the brother of Jesus. While the authors must be given due credit for making more of the scroll material available, their conclusions are tentative. Recommended for seminary and academic religion collections.
- Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Element Books Ltd (November 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852303689
• ISBN-13: 978-1852303686
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #779,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dead Sea Scrolls -- The Supplement, September 10, 2002

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Big Dave (Boise, Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents withheld for Over 35 Years (Paperback)

This book contains fifty short texts recovered from the Qumran caves, all fragmentary and some much worse than others.

The texts are grouped thematically into chapters, each chapter beginning with an introduction explaining the genre of text in question. For each text, the authors/editors give you a discussion/analysis, touching on relevant context and highlighting ideas that appear in the text, the Hebrew transliteration of the text (in contemporary Hebrew characters), and a translation. In addition, the center of the book contains a series of black and white photos, some of the area (Wadi Qumran and its caves, Masada) and some of the scroll fragments.

I've casually cross-checked the 50 texts in this volume against my larger edition of the Scrolls (Geza Vermes's translation), and many -- perhaps all -- of the fifty are also contained in the larger edition. What's different here, and what makes this book valuable, is the different translation (designed to emphasize, by vocabulary choice, points of commonality with the Jamesian Christian writings of the New Testament) and the commentary.

The fragmented texts reveal a community that was xenophobic, nationalistic, militant, pro-Maccabean and wildly apocalyptic. In addition, certain specific doctrines are clearly illuminated, including the resurrection of the dead and a single (as opposed to dual) Messiah.

The authors therefore paint a different picture of the Qumran community from proponents of the "Essene Theory" (like Geza Vermes). This makes for interesting reading of the texts in this book and also informs alternative understandings of other Dead Sea Scrolls texts. Very, very interesting.

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Translations of highly important documents., March 26, 1999

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[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents withheld for Over 35 Years (Paperback)

Eisenman and Wise have put together a phenomenal collection of some of the most significant missing scrolls. Each translation is accompanied by commentary and reproduction in the original Hebrew or Aramaic. Photographic plates of several of the actual scrolls are included. Scrolls such as "The Messianic Apocalypse" and "Chariots of Glory" are particularly impressive. Through the reading of these scrolls, one begins to understand that the Qumran library presents an entire spiritual system of faith, prophecy, and revelation. This is certainly THE "apocalyptic Judaism." Excellent material.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Its Value is as a Commentary on 50 DSS, January 25, 2003

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Virgil Brown (White Oak, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents withheld for Over 35 Years (Paperback)

_DSS Uncovered_ was first published in 1992 shortly after the embargo on the Scrolls had been broken. Eisenman and Wise played key roles in those events.Unfortunately _DSS Uncovered_ will be largely remembered for its sensational aspects. Chief among these is the "pierced messiah" text, Eisenman's interpretation of 4Q285. (On this matter Eisenman has since recanted according to none other than Wise who wrote this in _The Dead Sea Scrolls_ on page 292.)

This is not to fault the translations. I have no particular problem with the translations offered by E&W. For example, in 4Q521 E&W suggest "resurrect the dead" for VMTIM YCHYH. Perhaps a more literal translation might be "enliven the dead." However is there that much difference between raising from the dead and enlivening a person? In the thinking of the people of the place and time of the DSS, one raised a person from the dead by enlivening them and enlivening them "raised" them from the realm of the dead.

As a digressive thought, I might warn that the reader ought to be aware that fragment and column numbers, and sometimes scroll numbers, change from book to book. There are changes between the two books by Garcia-Martinez on the DSS texts. This is just a hazard of DSS studies.

Hopefully the above matters will not overshadow the usefulness of this book. There are transliterations, translations, and most of all...commentaries on 50 different DSS texts. E&W are quite right to point out that their 50 texts compares favorably with the volume of DSS texts which had been published up to that time. Also the commentaries point out to the reader esoteric allusions, interrelationships between the texts, and the beauty of some of the texts as well.

The real and enduring value of _DSS Uncovered_ is in its commentary.