The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Kenneth Hanson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997

In Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story, Hebrew scholar Kenneth Hanson captures all the mystery and excitement of the rediscovery of the scrolls, the half-century of intrigue that followed, and the ancient Hebrew sect that wrote, preserved, and died defending these treasured works.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Since 1991, when the Huntington Library opened its collection of photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls to scholars and the Biblical Archaeology Society published a two-volume set of the unpublished scrolls, dozens of books on the scrolls and Qumran have appeared, including two new translations of the nonbiblical texts. Hanson (Judaic studies, Univ. of Central Florida) skillfully tells the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the people who wrote and hid them (whom he identifies with the Essenes). He chronicles the sect as they make their way into the desert, struggle for survival, and are finally destroyed after fleeing to Masada. Throughout, he draws attention to correlations between the scrolls and the New Testament. While there is nothing particularly new here (despite the subtitle) and no issues are clearly resolved, Hanson's work is fairly well written and free of polemics. Recommended for those libraries that need a nonacademic introduction to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.?Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story is the exciting story of the Dead Sea Scrolls, of where they came from and what they meant to those who wrote them. What might they reveal for today's world? Why were they hidden in desert caves for two thousand years, coming to light again at the moment in history when the long diaspora of the Jews ended and the modern State of Israel was born? Israel in the years 200 BC to AD 70 was a place of prophets, Pharisees, Essenes, Herods, high priests. It was also a time of turmoil. , beginning with devastating persecution of Jews at the hands of the Syrians and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Here is also the story of a mysterious "Teacher of Righteousness" and his followers, their deadly confrontation with a powerful "Wicked Priest", and how the beliefs and practices of a fundamentalist Jewish sect laid the groundwork for the subsequent development of Christianity. -- Midwest Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Council Oak Books; 2 edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571780300
• ISBN-13: 978-1571780300
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,345,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a readable book about the Dead Sea Scrolls, November 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story (Paperback)

Dr. Hanson's effort is the first Dead Sea Scroll book I was able to finish. From beginning to end, I felt like I was transported in time to the fantastic and miraculous events so well described by Hanson. Other books about the Scrolls are packed with such weighty detail and self-righteous importance that the "man on the street" reader can hardly get through the initial chapters. Hanson, however, gives a clear and concise account of the Scroll discoveries written in a prose that humbly acknowledges the supernatural aspects of this remarkably important find. As a linguistics instructor at a major university, an amateur historian, and an ordained minister, I recommend Dr. Hanson's book to anyone wanting to understand the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls without having to become an expert in ancient languages or wade through the political ideologies of elitist academians. Specifically, this book belongs in the library of every minister or lay minister who seeks a deeper understanding of the events that shaped the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of the DSS; some overstatements, October 30, 2002

By 

S. A. Felton (southern OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story (Paperback)

I heard Dr. Hanson both times he has been on the well-known
(inter)national talk radio show, "Coast to Coast," though he was
never interviewed by the show's mainstay, Art Bell. Dr. Hanson is a
very competent and highly enthusiastic speaker. On the show and
certainly in "The Untold Story" he adds life to what could be a
"dead" subject. He is the rare Christian, not in that he accepts
Judaism as the undoubted precursor to Christianity (a point
fully proven by the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), according to him), but
he knows Hebrew fluently from years of study, and more importantly,
having lived in Israel for many years, and not always in the safest
places! You feel his deep love for religious studies in the book,
and his sincere, humble conviction for the religious path.

On the radio and in the Introduction of the book Dr. Hanson
promises to tell the DSS saga to non-scholars, without the verbose
and dry prose of the many scholarly but unfulfilling tomes that have
been produced since the remarkable discovery of the scrolls in 1947,
amazingly synchronistic with the founding of the modern state of Israel.
For the most part Dr. Hanson succeeds very well, giving a very clear,
thorough, lively, and from what I know, factual account of the finding,
history, and meaning of the DSS - all this in relatively few pages. I
think that even those (non-experts) who are familiar with the story will
find Dr. Hanson's account enjoyable reading.

Another aspect of the DSS that Dr. Hanson's covers admirably are
the many controversies surrouding the scrolls, and he explains why the
scholarly consensus is usually to him the most plausible. For example,
most scholars think that the authors and creators of the scrolls were
Essenes, but some feel that this is not the case. Dr. Hanson not
only shows why the philosophy and lifestyle(s) of the various Essene
sects point to the Essenes, but on p. 61 he cleverly speculates that
the Hebrew word Osin, which means "doers of God's will," could have
been "corrupted" to form "Essenes," who most certainly consider
themselves doers of God's will.

I much appreciated Dr. Hanson's extensive use of Josephus'
writings, for example discussing John the Baptist, as well as the
Romans account of the almost total annihilation of the Jews in Israel
by the Kittim (DSS term for "the dark forces") in the late 60's AD.
Finally, I also enjoyed Dr. Hanson's contention that Jesus himself
must have known about the DSS, and while he might have been the Messiah
the scrolls predicted, he constantly drew a distinction between their
extreme positions and disciplines and his more lenient, compassionate
teachings. (I will assume Jesus existed for this discussion).

Yet parts of the book were a little troublesome for me, and these
were always Dr. Hanson's commentaries (as opposed to his always
lucid accounts of the details of scrolls-related topics). Indeed
he quotes Josephus extensively for interesting historical context,
and even states that Josephus was a contemporary of Jesus, yet he
says not one word as to why there is maybe only 1 brief "legitimate"
reference in Josephus to Jesus, when according to the author, Jesus'
miracles, predicted by the DSS, were perhaps the most essential aspect
proving his being the Messiah! One would think that anyone who did
such things would be mentioned in detailed volumes in more than a
very passing way.

On p. 92 the cruel King Aristobolus dies after a short reign,
it is as if "divine judgement," but when there is a severe earthquake
in 31 B.C., that greatly affects the DSS community, there is no
"Godly" (my words) reason. Perhaps the Essenes and the author need
some background in science! And on p. 116 there is a paragraph
that stunned me given the quality of most of the book. Dr. Hanson
claims that through the Jewish ritual, the "Bar Mitzvah," the 13-year
old "son of the Most High," bypasses adolescence. Having gone through a
serious preparation of quite a bit of Hebrew and Torah reading myself
at that age, I can assure the author that the "High" was only very, very
temporary, and I went through my puberty like everyone else!

Whatever its faults, I still highly recommend "The Untold Story" for
a great overview and fine insights into the many aspects the Dead Sea
Scrolls.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beginners Dead Sea Scrolls, October 1, 2000

By 

scorpizious "scorpizious" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story (Paperback)

I was just learning about the Dead Sea Scrolls when I first read this book, and I must say, I found it an intriguing and informative source of information. It was easy to understand and provided me with valuable information. This is a great book for virtually any age--young or old, who is intersted in learning about, or expanding their knolwedge of, the Dead Sea Scrolls.