Enigma of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd boy, are the oldest original biblical manuscripts in existence. Hidden for more than 2,000 years, it is alleged by scientists, theologists, and archaeologists that their discovery has provided new insight into previously unknown events that occurred during the life of Jesus and that influenced the emergence of Christianity. The many miracles that surround their discovery and their suspicious handling by scholars ever since has given rise to widespread public curiosity and demands that their content be released in its entirety.

What do they contain? The cave in which they were discovered, located in the wilderness of Judea, was home to the hermetic Essene community of Qumran during the time in which Jesus lived. The Essenes, though they called themselves Saducees, have long been considered the forerunners of modern Christianity and it is speculated that John the Baptist and even Jesus himself were Essenes. While it is known that the scrolls contain intimate details of Jewish learning and rabbinic discussions that establish continuity between ancient Jewish observance and that of our days, what the scrolls have to say about the birth of Christianity has yet to be revealed by the scholars who hold them under lock and key.

Enigma of the Dead Sea Scrolls follows the path of the scrolls from the Bedouin desert tribe that found them to the antiquities dealer who bought them, from the hostile Arab territory out of which they were smuggled all the way to the laboratory and the museum. Every step of the scrolls' turbulent journey is accompanied by commentary and interviews with archaeologists, historians, scroll experts, theologians, clergy, and others who claim that the scrolls are indeed missing links in the world's history, links allegedly still too momentous for the Christian and Jewish worlds to discover.