Pondering the events and images surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls in the past year, one cannot help but marvel at the rapidity of change and the degree of public interest in the usually sleepy hollow of the academic study of ancient texts. The “scandal of the scrolls” captured the imagination of the American people. Images of secrecy and intrigue filled the air. The current scroll editors were portrayed as illicitly hoarding the cache, even obstructing the public dissemination of knowledge. The tabloids shared in the fun, quoting “scholars” who found secret references to Elvis buried deep in the supposedly […]
