"Before the Scrolls: A Material Approach to Israel's Prophetic Library traces the media history of the biblical prophetic corpus in order to propose a material approach to biblical literature. Though often ignored, the realia of a text's form, format, production, and material substance have profound influence on the meaning of the text. The literature of the Bible was not initially written as discrete books with determined beginnings, middles, and ends. Before the Scrolls argues instead that biblical compositions of length, such as the great prophetic books Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, were initially written on loosely organized collections of multiple short papyrus scrolls. Only later in the Hellenistic era were these compositions edited, organized, and copied into the longer book-scrolls known from the Dead Sea. The shift from prophetic library to linear prophetic book-scroll represents a transformation in material medium that had significant effects on that literature. This material approach to the prophetic corpus suggests novel solutions to classic problems in the field such as the relationship between the MT and LXX of Jeremiah and the between First and Second Isaiah. The failure to account for the materiality of the prophetic corpus has led scholarship to occasionally ask the wrong questions of these compositions and has blinded it to the vital role that Hellenistic bookmakers played in the creation of the Bible as we know it"--

From the dramatic find in the caves of Qumran, the world's most ancient version of the Bible allows us to read the scriptures as they were in the time of Jesus.

Publisher Fact Sheet Argues that there was a "messianic forerunner" to Jesus named Menachem who lived a generation earlier & served as a sort of role model for Jesus & his messianic movement.

Dr. Norman Golb's classic study on the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls is now available online. Since their earliest discovery in 1947, the Scrolls have been the object of fascination and extreme controversy. Challenging traditional dogma, Golb has been the leading proponent of the view that the Scrolls cannot be the work of a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect, as various earlier scholars had claimed, but are in all likelihood the remains of libraries of various Jewish groups, smuggled out of Jerusalem and hidden in desert caves during the Roman siege of 70 A. D. Contributing to the enduring debate sparked by the book's original publication in 1995, this digital edition contains additional material reporting on new developments that have led a series of major Israeli and European archaeologists to support Golb's basic conclusions. In its second half, the book offers a detailed analysis of the workings of the scholarly monopoly that controlled the Scrolls for many years, and discusses Golb's role in the struggle to make the texts available to the public. Pleading for an end to academic politics and a commitment to the search for truth in scrolls scholarship, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? sets a new standard for studies in intertestamental history "This book is 'must reading'.... It demonstrates how a particular interpretation of an ancient site and particular readings of ancient documents became a straitjacket for subsequent discussion of what is arguably the most widely publicized set of discoveries in the history of biblical archaeology...." Dr. Gregory T. Armstrong, 'Church History' Golb "gives us much more than just a fresh and convincing interpretation of the origin and significance of the Qumran Scrolls. His book is also... a fascinating case-study of how an idee fixe, for which there is no real historical justification, has for over 40 years dominated an elite coterie of scholars controlling the Scrolls...." Daniel O'Hara, 'New Humanist'

The most accurate time line of the end-times to date. This book contains two time lines that biblically detail what the prophets foretold (digital downloads). The angel told Daniel that what he saw and heard would be sealed up until the end-times; now the end-times are here. Do you want to know the truth? One World Order, One World Religion. The world broken into chunks. Is the USA in the Bible? What physical characteristics do we know about Antichrist? Where will he come from? Who is the False Prophet and what does he try to make you take? When is the devil really kicked out of the third heaven? The 666, have you been using it for decades? The truth about the Rapture. When do the seals, trumpets and bowls happen, and what can we expect? Are the two witnesses just two people or many? The war of Armageddon and the clean up after it. Will there be nuclear war? Are people going to live almost a thousand years old again? Is the Temple Mount the real place of Solomon's Temple? Were there giants before and after the flood? How about dinosaurs, the three heavens? When you die, where do you go? Is there soul sleep? Where is the Red Sea crossing? The real Mt Sinai, Noah's ark, Sodom and Gomorrah. This book will dive into all these topics and more. Finally, find out the truth and what you need to prepare for. This is a battle over our souls, and we need to be well armed and ready.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean desert between 1947 and 1956 transformed our understanding of the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism and the origins of Christianity. These extraordinary manuscripts appear to have been hidden in the caves at Quumran by members of the Essene community, a Jewish sect in existence before and during the time of Jesus. Some sixty years after the Scrolls' first discovery, this revised and much expanded edition of The Dead Sea Scrolls in English crowns a lifetime of research by the great Qumran scholar Geza Vermes. As well as superb translations of all non-biblical texts sufficiently well preserved to be rendered into English, there are also a number of previously unpublished texts, and a new preface. Since its first publication in 1962, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English has established itself as the standard English translation of the non-Biblical Qumran Scrolls and as giving an astonishing insight to the organization, customs, history and beliefs of the community responsible for them. This edition will contain new material, together with extensive new introductory material and notes.

By the author of the best-selling Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered and the James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls series, fascinating to beginner and scholar alike, this book provides further delineation of the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity's formative years in Palestine. Included in this volume are Prof. Eisenman's first two ground-breaking works: Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran and James the Just in Habakkuk Pesher. The foundation pieces of his new approach to the Scrolls and "Palestinian Christianity," they triggered the debate over their relationship to Christian Origins generally ultimately leading to the freeing of the Scrolls early in the 1990's - a struggle in which he played a pivotal role. Also included in this volume are unpublished papers and essays, written and presented by him at international conferences in the past. These include "Paul as Herodian," "Rain Imagery at Qumran," and "The Final Proof that James and the Righteous Teacher are the Same" altogether providing a thorough and even more challenging presentation of the link of the Scrolls to early First-Century Christianity in Palestine. This volume also contains new translations of three key Qumran Documents: the Habakkuk Pesher, the Damascus Document, and the Community Rule, all almost only available in the sometimes inaccurate and often inconsistent renderings of Consensus 'Scholars' missing the electric brilliance of the writers of the Scrolls. Now, for the first time, the reader will have a chance to see the difference between these and a translation that grasps the apocalyptic mindset of the authors of the Scrolls. Subjecting the archaeology, paleography, and other external dating tools of Qumran research to rigorous criticism, Prof. Eisenman presents a fascinating and compelling picture of a nationalistic, xenophobic, and militant "Messianism" very different from the way we currently view Christianity - in fact, the literature of "the Messianic Movement in Palestine" itself. Not only does this book challenge preconceptions, it sets forth the detailed arguments necessary to connect "the Righteous Teacher" at Qumran to "the First Christians" and even the family of Jesus itself. In so doing, it connects the ideological adversary of this Teacher, "the Spouter of Lying" - in some cases even denoted "the Joker" - with Paul.