1) _The Copper Scroll_ by Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale, 2006) caught my attention because the advertising claimed that the scroll was uncovered in 1956. There was a 1956 New York Times article, but there was also a 1952 NYT article (1 April 1952, p.13 col. 6) following the 20 March 1952 discovery. The novel itself gets the 1952 date right, but much else there is unreliable. Since I've read the novel--which I can't really recommend as literature--here are a few comments, in case there's interest in this case of popular (mis)represention of the scrolls. The book involves a search for the "Key Scroll" and then the deposits, and also the Ark of the Covenant, with lots of killing, and political and religious assertions along the way. Of course the Copper Scroll does not lack speculative narrative attractions, and the book to some extent makes use of this. The "Acknowledgments" lists some bibliography, but lacks, e.g., Milik, Puech, and _Copper Scroll Studies_ (2002)
In this book Essenes lived by the Dead Sea "around 200 BCE" (102). The Shrine of the Book display includes "ink-stained quills" (103). The Isaiah Scroll is the "oldest Biblical manuscript ever found" (103). Scrolls include "a journal of daily life" (108). "Father Bargil Pixner....was a member of the original team...who discovered the Copper Scroll..." (174). Typos: "Erin's "closet [closest?] friend at the CIA"(21); "He wore small a yarmulke" (107); "Hold one, Jack Knife, hold one..." [should be "Hold on..."] 2) September BAR apparently includes an article by Y. Magen claiming Qumran was primarily a factory for exporting pottery. The Brown University Qumran Conference volume chapter that makes this claim, in my view, is one of the chapters that is not reliable and may well be read with caution. Some of the other chapters are more helpful. best Stephen Goranson http://www.duke.edu/~goranson _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
