ReViews

The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Writings, Beliefs and Practices

Florentino García Martínez and Julio Trebolle Barrera. Translated by Wilfred G.E. Watson (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995) 269 pp., $42 (paper)

New and exciting developments in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls—including the publication of previously unknown texts and the development of innovative perspectives on the archaeology of Qumran and the historical background of the Scroll writers—have captured the imagination of both scholars and amateurs alike in recent years. An area of Biblical studies that once was considered rather esoteric has been endowed with fresh interest.

Unfortunately, the new and exciting make only rare appearances in this volume, a collection of 12 papers by two well-known Spanish specialists in the Qumran literature. García Martínez, editor of Revue de Qumran and author of the recent Dead Sea Scrolls Translated, is the author of eight of the papers, while Trebolle Barrera, a member of the official team of editors, wrote the remaining four specially for this book.