As someone who has been interested in the topic but never sat down to read a book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, I found this book to be a great read for someone new to the subject. Professor VanderKam does well in providing an unbiased and objective view of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including their history and discovery, as well as current updates regarding the scrolls and the controversies that surround them. The book does a great job of presenting a high-level overview of these various topics surrounding the scrolls, while diving down into more detail at times to provide pertinent examples that allow the reader to better understand the topic at hand.
VanderKam appears to have a wealth of knowledge on the subject, which is lent further credence late in the book when we find that he was actually part of the team that analyzed and documented some of the scrolls beginning in the late 1980’s. Overall, the book covers a lot of ground in just a couple hundred pages, but is well-organized and very easy to read, making it worthwhile for anyone wanting a good introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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