Hidden Scrolls

Silberman (Between Past and Present) challenges the orthodox interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls as the religious testament of an isolated monastic community, such as the Essenes. In his view, the ancient Aramaic and Hebrew documents give voice to the militant anger of a Jewish national resistance to imperial Roman rule that erupted in the Jews' ill-fated rebellion of A.D. 66. The messiah (or messiahs) predicted in the Scrolls is not a metaphysical savior, suggests Silberman, but an earthly political leader who will usher in a holy war against the Romans and their Judean collaborators. He further argues that both Christianity and rabbinical Judaism arose through a spiritual and cultural accommodation to the Roman order in which the messianic message of the Scrolls was abandoned. Silberman, an American researcher who worked for the Israeli Department of Antiquities, interviewed two dozen Scroll scholars for this provocative report, which also narrates the discovery of the Scrolls and the battle to free them from the monopolistic control of a small circle of experts. (Oct.)