From the editor:In this controversial new book, Thiede focuses on what are, perhaps, the most enigmatic ancient documents ever found-the Dead Sea Scrolls. Drawing on his own pioneering methods in restoring the scrolls, Thiede reveals that the Essene library represented by the scrolls demonstrates that the first Christians were essentially a Jewish movement, not a radically new and fundamentally different religion. This perspective clearly has major implications: it affects both how we view the scrolls, and it changes how we consider the history of first-century Christianity.

Unraveling the complex history of the scrolls since their discovery in 1947, Thiede places them in the context of what has previously been unknown about the Essene community at Qumran. His identification of scroll fragments from Mark's Gospel and Paul's first letter to Timothy indicates that such Jewish-Christian writings were written before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Moreover, it also suggests that the Essene community viewed the early Christians as fellow Jews, whose provocative ideas about the true Messiah they wanted to scrutinize.

Eye-opening and stimulating, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity reveals the fruits of much painstaking and original research for the first time.

Pages: 265, Illustrated
Special Interest: Theology, Esoterica, Philosophy, Antiquity, Cosmology, Occult, Arcana.