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The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh
01/02/2003 . Source: Jane Palmer 
pub: Arrow Books. [First published in 1991 by Jonathan Cape] 384 page paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 0 09 925703 3. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. This book by the authors of 'The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail' was first published over ten years ago. Here is a review for anyone who is interested in conspiracy theories and might have missed it.
The treatise is also for those who are attracted to the common sense and compassion of Christianity and at the same time repelled by the magic and doctrines of its Church.
'The Dead Sea Scroll Deception' is expertly researched and offers the premise that Christian belief did not stem from a small local affair, but that its tenets were already an institution well before the coming of Jesus.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the catalyst for the authors' assertion that the reason no translation of anything contentious to the Church has been forthcoming since their first discovery in the caves at Qumran in 1947, is to prevent it being undermined by historical revelations.
There may well be evidence in the Scrolls of the existence of Jesus or the personas or persona he arose from, but this proof could also blow apart the cast-iron certainties on which the influence of the Church depends.
The Essenes had established a socially aware community and, from what has already been gleaned from of the Dead Sea Scrolls, there are inescapable parallels with the teaching of Jesus. This suggests that Christianity existed in all but name well before his birth.
Members of the community at Qumran were also probably more ubiquitous than history credits, having in common a covenant that laid down their code of living. Baigent and Leigh point out that the name 'Essene' is derived from the Greek 'Essenoi' or 'Essenioi' which have no equivalent in Hebrew or Aramaic, being more probably derived from 'Osei ha-Torah' meaning 'Doers of the law'.
It is for the reader to ask themselves whether the common sense of Jesus' teaching needs the magic of multiplying loaves, the Virgin Birth or Resurrection to make it any more valid.
This may well have helped in controlling the Byzantine and medieval flocks racked by famine and plague. Are we still so unsophisticated that we need to be protected from historical truth? Especially by a papacy most people do not recognise.
As the authors point out, the Dead Sea Scrolls belong to humanity that should not have its access limited to them by a few scholars with an agenda to prevent any challenge to the Church.
For anyone interested in the ultimate conspiracy theory, here is one so potent and well put together in its plausibility it is surprising it has not created a greater furore.
Jane Palmer
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