PREFACE

THE following chapters make no claim to being an exhaustive study of this fabulous documentary and archaeological material from the Dead Sea; such would be quite outside the scope of a concise, popular volume. It does attempt to give to the general public some conception of the extent and importance of recent discoveries in this area, and I hope [it does so] in a perspective made possible by a study of the published and unpublished material alike. If, as seems probable, this volume appears in print before the full publication of many of my documentary sources, let me apologize in advance for the irritation this may cause specialists in the field. They may rest assured that work in the Jerusalem ‘Scrollery’ A workspace where researchers clean and assemble scroll fragments. is proceeding as fast as money and facilities become available for our journeys to Jordan. At least, we can feel glad that three years of begging has produced the money needed for the rescue of these precious scrolls, and we work now on the assumption that most of what still survives is in our hands.

My debt to the vast amount of scholarship which has already gone into the study of the published scrolls will be self-evident to the specialist, and a perusal of the appended select bibliography will make the sources of many of the ideas used here immediately apparent. I should, however, like to pay a special tribute to the sterling pioneer work of Professor K. G. Kuhn in those aspects of the Scrolls affecting Christian origins.

Personal acknowledgements must begin with an expression of gratitude to Mr Gerald Lankester Harding and Father R. de Vaux, O.P. Order of Preachers (Dominicans)., for allowing me to take part in the editing of the Scroll fragments, and for valuable help and advice on the archaeological chapters. To Mr Joseph Saad, Secretary of the Palestine Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem, I am greatly indebted for much ‘inside information’ on the early stages of the tracing and purchase of the Scroll fragments, and to my colleagues in the ‘Scrollery’ for much kind advice, although it must be stated that responsibility for opinions expressed in these pages is entirely my own.

I should also like to thank the Matron and masters of St George’s Upper School, Jerusalem, for their kind hospitality and invaluable discussion on these chapters, and also my friends at Hebron.