Sometime between 1946 and 1956, a bedouin shepherd discovered a long-hidden cache of scrolls in a cave in cliffs above the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea that date to the time of Jesus and even before that.

These writings include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books that are now part of the Bible, as well as other manuscripts from late Second Temple Judaism. The scrolls are written mostly in Hebrew, but also in Aramaic and Greek, and are written on parchment or papyrus. The assembly, arrangement, and translation of the many manuscripts and fragments continues to be a source of fascination and debate for scholars, archaeologists, and theologians.

Up for grabs is the Folio Society edition of THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, reissued in 2000, in a beautiful hardcover copy featuring a selection of original manuscripts translated and edited by Geza Verme, with a color frontispiece and many black and white plates. The Folio Society edition comes in the publisher’s burnt orange slipcase.

A like-new copy, with a tight binding, straight boards, and clean, bright interior; the slipcase is also in excellent shape.