The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls – Geza Vermes – 2 Stars
Title: The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls
Author: Geza
Vermes
Publisher: Penguin
Classics (Mass Production)
Year: Original
Softcover 1991 – Current Softcover 2012 (7th Edition)
Rating: 2 Stars
Price and
Purchasing Options: Because this book is a mass market paperback it is
pretty available and economical. The
retail price is around $25, but can be found on Amazon for less than $15. You typically won’t find this at Deseret
Industries, just because it isn’t something that hit mass penetration in the
LDS community to be recycled there. But
you could probably find a cheap copy of on eBay for a couple of bucks. No big investment needed. I believe most of this can also be found in
some form online somewhere.
Review: As
usual I will not due justice to the importance or the history of the Dead Sea
Scrolls here – but I will give a brief general ten-thousand foot view.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered accidentally in the
1940’s. They were the sacred records of a
group of Jews presumed to be sect of the Essenes (the priestly sect of the
Jews). As far as we currently understand
– around the first few centuries BCE they had their own exodus from the main
body and lived in the desert. Near the
time of their extinction they felt it necessary to preserve their sacred writing
for a later date – bottled them in pottery, scaled the cliffs and hid them in
virtually inaccessible caves (so that they wouldn’t be destroyed when the
community was).
The Scrolls contain some of the earliest writings and
versions of Isaiah, as well as some of the other commonly known Old Testament
prophets. However, most of the text
contains sect specific books which are focused on the community, as well has
highly apocalyptic prophecies. The Rules
of the Community were written by an unknown author but is pretty much the
keystone of the text – giving visibility into who they were, and how they
lived.
This text is the most economical and approachable version
of the text I have found. By giving it
two stars I am not knocking it. I
actually find the text interesting and I personally enjoyed it – but I also
realize for most they wouldn’t enjoy it as much, and they also probably wouldn’t
increase their testimony in Christ as a result.
For the purpose of this review – for the LDS Community I am giving it
two stars. It is something that if you
are interested in, and you can read a lot of text while getting very little out
of it (and you know if you are this person) – than go for it. But for the average member of the Church, you
will not find any obvious gems or insight that will make you a better Christian
as a result. It is definitely not
something that you need to read.
However, if you are interested in the concept – FARMS previously
had published a book called The LDS
Perspective on the Dead Sea Scrolls – this is probably a great book for you
to read (I’ll review it officially eventually).
This book will give you all the perspective you need in a condensed and
focused view.
The key with the LDS Community and the Dead Sea Scrolls
(for the most part) isn’t about the content within the scrolls themselves. The connection here is that they even
exist. It is the fact that there were
communities which were fleeing and had their own exodus (which people didn’t
know about until after they were extinct and then rediscovered). It is about how they valued their sacred
texts and what that meant to them – as well as their desire to preserve it. The fact that they hid their sacred records
before their own destruction – and they did so in a way with full anticipation they
would be rediscovered for a future community to benefit from.
In many of his early work – Hugh Nibley covers this quite
well in the first couple of his collected works on the Book of Mormon, Old
Testament, and the Ancient World.
Suggestions: Unless you are really interested in the raw
text, no need to jump into it. If you
are somewhat interested feel free to get the LDS Perspective on the Dead Sea Scrolls from FARMS.
If you are going to ever read through the Collected Works of Nibley –
just read through those and you will get a good perspective on where they sit
in relation to the LDS Community.
I hope you have enjoyed this review, and I encourage you
to follow this blog as I update more reviews in the coming days, weeks, months,
etc. Please feel free to also follow my
YouTube page – however, I enjoy writing more than being on camera!
Review #26
Tags: The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Sacred Scripture, Geza Vermes, 2 Stars, LDS Book
Review, Ryan Daley
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