Inside BAR

The Temple Scroll, the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is the focus of a special triptych of articles in this issue. These articles present three different aspects of the scroll’s history and meaning. First, in “Intrigue and the Scroll—Behind the Scenes of Israel’s Acquisition of the Temple Scroll,” BAR editor Hershel Shanks reveals for the first time the secret story of how the scroll came to light and spurred delicate, but ultimately futile, negotiations for its acquisition. Shanks also reveals the identity of the mysterious “Mr. Z,” the American intermediary in the Temple Scroll negotiations. It’s a story of illegal antiquities-dealing, strange characters and greed, all told from the viewpoint of “Mr. Z.”

Next, Hartmut Stegemann, an authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls, asks “Is the Temple Scroll a Sixth Book of the Torah—Lost for 2,500 Years?” After rejecting Temple Scroll scholar Yigael Yadin’s conclusion that the scroll was a central Torah of the Essene community, Stegemann suggests that it was actually a collection of portions of various Torah scrolls and additional literary sources that had been excluded when Ezra canonized the Pentateuch in 458 B.C. The Temple Scroll, Stegemann believes, was originally intended to be a supplementary sixth book of the Torah, on a par with the other five books of the Pentateuch.