W. Raymond Johnson - Oriental Institute.
In The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hershel Shanks, the distinguished editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, gives a vivid account of their religious and historical context and their dissemination, meaning, and implications. Of the eight hundred manuscripts that were eventually found, fewer than a dozen were more or less intact.
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.
This volume covers the history of Judaism in the Roman period. Political history is treated from Pompey to Vespasian, but many chapters on Jewish life and thought go beyond the period of the Flavian emperors to present themes and evidence of importance for Judaism up to the 3rd century CE.
Schuller, Eileen M., 'Women in the Dead Sea Scrolls', Michael O. Wise, Norman Golb, John J. Collins and Denis Pardee (eds.), Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects, New York: New York Academy of Science, 1994, pp. 115-131.
Norman Golb (The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago)THE MESSIANIC PRETENDER SOLOMON IBN AL-RUJI AND HIS SON MENAHEM (THE SO-CALLED “DAVID ALROY”) (Kurdistan, First Half of the 12th Century) The earliest source describing the messianic pretension initiated by Solomon ibn al-Ruji in Kurdistan is the historical memoir of Obadiah the Proselyte, who apparently learned of it while.
Can a False Prophet Perform Miracles? Deuteronomy 13 discusses the case of a false prophet who does not have a message from God, but advocates worshiping other gods. Oddly enough, the false prophet can successfully perform miracles, or is able to predict the future.
The younger Golb sent a large number of emails to a variety of recipients in which he impersonated various Dead Sea Scroll scholars, supposedly supporting the elder Golb’s views. Among those impersonated by the younger Golb was the then-most prominent American Dead Sea Scroll scholar, Harvard’s Frank Moore Cross, who has since died.