The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception [antikvár]

PrefaceTHE FOUR DEAD SEA SCROLLSBiblical manuscripts dating back to at least 200 BC are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group. Box F 206.Such was the advertisement that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on 1 June 1954. Were an advertisement of this sort to appear today, it would no doubt be thought some species of practical joke, not entirely in the best of taste. Alternatively, it might be regarded as a coded message - to mask an arms deal, for example, or something involving espionage.Today, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls are well enough known, if only by name. Most people, while having an extremely nebulous idea of what they are, will at least have heard of them. If nothing else, there exists an awareness that the scrolls are in some way genuinely precious items, archaeological evidence of immense importance. One doesn't expect to find a specimen of them while digging in one's back garden. One doesn't regard them even as one might the rusted weapons, the domestic utensils and appliances, the remnants of equipment or apparel tliat might be found at, say, the site of some Roman excavation in Britain.The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 generated a flurry of excitement both in scholarly11