ABSTRACT
The domain of the Dead Sea scrolls as a field of study in general, has grown by leaps and bounds, inspite of the delay in the publication of the fragmentary scrolls. In the summer of 1947 which portioned Palestine between Arabs and Jews and allowed for the establishment of the State of Israel, two Bedouins and their meager flocks of goats were wandering under the scorching sun on the harsh terrain of the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, some eight miles south of Jericho, the biblical city that lay twenty-five miles east of Jerusalem. Thus, the Dead Sea Scrolls throw much light in general on one of the most exciting periods of Jewish history, namely the last centuries before the destruction of the Second Temple (AD 70), which abounded in dramatic and fateful events and saw the rise of Christianity.
