A review by julis
The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Géza Vermes

challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

I’ve been working my way through early Jewish literature, and so got this book. (A lot of what I’ve been reading is online, in out-of-copyright translation. Obviously these translations are still in copyright!!)

This is one of those books which you don’t read unless you are very into the topic, but if you ARE into absolutely batshit cults from the intertestamental period, this is a GREAT book. Vermes provides an extensive introduction with explanations and commentary before each document that help provide context.

Note that it does not contain the Tanakh scrolls found at Qumran (on the grounds that a full understanding of where those documents differ from the Masoretic text is several books in itself and that unless you’re interested in the particularities of biblical Hebrew grammar you’re better off just reading your own Tanakh)(this is a detail missed by several people leaving amazon reviews)