Review of The Texts from the Judaean Desert: Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series, by Emanuel Tov et al.

As the official publication process for the texts from the Judaean Desert, or the Dead Sea Scrolls, has drawn to a close, Emanuel Tov, the Editor-in-Chief of the project, has prepared a volume meant to serve as an introduction to and a guide through the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert. Such a volume is necessary given the complicated nature and protracted time span of the series. The first volume was published in 1955, while the last one to contain original editions was just published in 2005. Eight volumes were written in French, the other thirty-one in English. Four different Editors-in-Chief, de Vaux, Benoit, Strugnell, and Tov, oversaw the work of 106 editors and contributors from North America, Europe, and Israel. Manuscripts discovered at the following sites are included in the series: Wadi Daliyeh, Ketef Jericho, Qumran, Wadi Murabba’at, Wadi Sdeir, (Nahal Hever, (Nahal Mishmar, and NaΩal Se’elim (p. 3). Most remarkably, approximately 1000 manuscripts, in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Greek, ranging in paleographical date from c. 250 BCE to the 11th century CE, have been published. The scholar or student who opens one of these volumes for the first time can be forgiven a certain sense of bewilderment. This volume is meant to help the user out of that bewilderment