The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English: Seventh Edition (Penguin Classics) Paperback – Illustrated, June 26, 2012

It includes a few texts not in Wise, Abegg and Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls (1Q19; 4Q481a) . But some are not in either volume. These include 4Q474; 4Q123; 4Q523; 4Q551; 4Q433; 4Q440; 4Q347; 4Q341; 4Q366; and 4Q368. This book is very worthwhile for for its alternate translation and introductory texts. It is small but the print is readable. I would prefer Wise, Abegg and Cook however to this book although I will use both and they are both very affordable.

I'm taking an upper level history course on Dead Sea Scrolls, and this is one of my two texts for the class. I'm very impressed with the accuracy of translation and the writing competency of the author. It is clearly written and documents all of the non-Biblical writings found in the Dead Sea sea scrolls.When I first got the book, I was disappointed that the books of the Bible and Torah had been omitted from the work, but I soon learned in class that these were readily available in (drumroll, please) the Bible and the Torah. The significance of the scrolls is that they confirm the accuracy of the already-known but younger copies of these much-read and loved works. Although the scrolls are over a thousand years older than any of the previously known extant writings, they are almost identical to the newer copies!The scrolls included in this book are peshars, midrashes and targums (commentaries on Biblical books such as Nahum and Habakkuk); a Community Rule for the sect which apparently lived at Qumran, a settlement near the caves where the scrolls were found; eschatological writings regarding the end of times (such as the War Scroll); and directives to the Leader of the sect which presided over the congregation. Very, very interesting window on sectarian life.The only complaint I have--and it's probably one born of ignorance--is that it is somewhat difficult to find specific documents by using the indices at the end of the book. I'm never sure I've completed a reading assignment because of the cluttered way that the manuscripts are referenced. But when I consider how many thousands of fragments were organized and of how many copies of the same text were found in 11 different caves, it's no wonder the index is so complex. Some people use this book to study only ONE of the copies of a document. So all of the works must be referenced and cross-referenced in the index--not just the best preserved of the bunch.Likewise, in reading the translations of the manuscripts, the brackets and parentheses, used in the middle of words and sentences to distinguish between texts from different caves, are rather distracting because they aren't utilized in the manner that I'm accustomed to in reading and writing. It takes a little getting used to. But it is a very effective means for the writer to pull together a fragment of a document from one cave to fill in missing text from another copy of the same document found in another cave.I don't know if any of that even makes sense. This is a book which really needs a companion text, such as James VanderKam's The Dead Sea Scrolls Today. Unless you already know the history of the sect and how the scrolls were discovered, the manuscripts alone are fairly meaningless to the modern reader.It was a daunting task, assembling the fragments of the scrolls and cataloging all of the documents found in those caves. To organize all of that information into one cohesive anthology and then translate it from Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek into English and other languages is nothing short of heroic. Vermes is a brilliant man indeed.

Now here is a true jewel of deep and thorough work !

The biblical texts are not included. Sure, they'd fill a lot of volume and for most people may be redundant, for he have modern translations of the canonical texts at our fingertips. But for s/he who is precisely interested in the famously abundant variants retrieved at Qumran, well, they are not here included. This book does not encompass "the complete Dead Sea scrolls in English," but "the complete NON-BIBLICAL Dead Sea scrolls."The introduction is wide-ranging and generally excellent. The author traces the history of the recovery and publication of the DSS and, understandingly, permits himself a few swipes at people involved in the well known delays. It's a good read. Two requirements for a future revised versions:(a) greater attention to the archaeological finds, on which there have been new publications in the past 20 years (the introduction is from 2004). Notably, archaeologists now date the inauguration of the Qumran community to 100 BCE or later, no longer to 150-140 BCE as does the author. This revised timeline has repercussions on his section on the history of the community(a) engagement with the developments of the past 20 years in the history of Palestine and the possible datings of Biblical texts. Indeed, it was only these past 20 years that saw the emergence of a genuinely scientific history of BCE Palestine unencumbered by theology. Notably the dating of DSS texts, which at present relies much on palaeography, which is important but comes with large margins of error, can now be complemented with a cross-check against plausible dates of composition of Biblical texts to which some of the DSS refer or owe a debt (though the textual priority may not in all cases been obvious). The author makes a very admirable effort to link DSS textual evidence to the historical context; this effort now deserves a thorough review and update.