ReViews: The Scrolls—A Life of Controversy

The Dead Sea Scrolls—A Biography

By John J. Collins (Princeton/Oxford: Princeton Univ. Press, 2012), 288 pp., $24.95 (hardcover)

John Collins has been studying the Dead Sea Scrolls over a long and distinguished career and here offers a very impressive introduction to all the key issues in light of our maturing appreciation of their significance. He then proceeds to lay out the remaining questions. Like several leading lights of the second generation of scroll scholars, Collins is a prolific author and tireless editor. He nevertheless succeeds in presenting a fresh and accessible account that skillfully combines a grand narrative interspersed with intriguing and significant details.