In the tradition of Dan Brown, expect a wild ride from start to finish, as John B. Macurdy’s The Masada Scroll mixes history, exotic locations, arcane religion, ancient texts, and plenty of modern action adventure. When former CIA assassin Nick Strahan undertakes a mission to help an old friend in trouble, archaeologist Dr. Jones, Strahan must evade danger or be assassinated himself. A shadow network of disparate and unlikely bedfellows helps him at each step along the way. Strahan can only guess at the explosive nature of Dr. Jones’ find, and will do everything he can to make sure his find comes to light. “Strahan still didn’t see any particular car that might be trailing him, but several other drivers had taken his passing them at a truly remarkable speed as a challenge. As a result, they had made the ludicrous decision to pick up the gauntlet and try to stay with him. This happenstance made for a truly comical scene playing itself out on the road behind Strahan as he watched the variety of unskilled drivers, who also lacked true performance automobiles, attempt to mirror his highly technical maneuvers. Equally humorous were the cornucopia of hand gestures that reflected the collective commuters’ opinion of the road-rage drivers attempting to mimic him. But he flew over the East River so quickly he barely noticed he’d been over water.”

When a gospel scroll that predates the New Testament is discovered, it introduces a mysterious symbol that combines the Star of David, the Cross of Christianity, and the Crescent and Star of Islam. None of these symbols existed at the time the gospel was written, adding to a mystery that Irish priest Michael Flannery must unravel.

Catalog of the Masada exhibition of artifacts, models, etc. from the fortress of Masada, and the siege by Roman soldiers of the Jewish rebels holed up therein.

Preliminary Material -- Provenance -- Form, Content, and Function -- Angelology -- The Heavenly Temple -- The Qumran Context of the Sabbath Shirot -- Provenance - Notes -- Form, Content, and Function - Notes -- Angelology - Notes -- The Heavenly Temple - Notes -- The Qumran Context of the Sabbath Shirot - Notes -- 4Q400: Text and Commentary -- 4Q401: Text and Commentary -- 4Q402: Text and Commentary -- Masada Shirshabb: Text and Commentary -- 4Q403: Text and Commentary -- 4Q404: Text and Commentary -- 4Q405: Text and Commentary -- 4Q406: Text and Commentary -- 4Q407: Text and Commentary -- llQshirshabb: Text and Commentary -- Concordance -- Numeration of Manuscripts and Fragments -- Bibliography of Works Cited.

Magness (early Judaism, U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), who has extensive archaeological experience in the area, has written a popular account of the archaeology, meaning, and controversies surrounding the Dead Seas Scrolls and the archaeological site of Qumran where they were found. Without sacrificing content, Magness turns this story into a fascinating page-turner. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd literally stumbled upon a cave near the Dead Sea, a settlement now called Qumran, to the east of Jerusalem. This cave, along with the others located nearby, contained jars holding hundreds of scrolls and fragments of scrolls of texts both biblical and nonbiblical—in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The biblical scrolls would be the earliest evidence of the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament, by hundreds of years; and the nonbiblical texts would shed dramatic light on one of the least-known periods of Jewish history—the Second Temple period. This find is, quite simply, the most important archaeological event in two thousand years of biblical studies. The scrolls provide information on nearly every aspect of biblical studies, including the Old Testament, text criticism, Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, and Christian origins. It took more than fifty years for the scrolls to be completely and officially published, and there is no comparable brief, introductory resource. Core Biblical Studies fulfill the need for brief, substantive, yet highly accessible introductions to key subjects and themes in biblical studies. In the shifting tides of biblical interpretation, these books are designed to help students locate relevant meanings in conversation with the text. As a first step toward substantive and subsequent learning, the series draws on the best scholarship in order to provide foundational concepts and contextualized information on a broad scope of issues, methods, perspectives, and trends.