[RobbyS]

Golb makes some good points, but in defense of the “christological” emphasis, I must say that after the discovery of the scrolls, the first interpretations uniformly aimed to discredit Christianity, in part by asserting the lack of originality in Christianity. Indeed, this was nothing more than an continuation of the Enlightenment project, which has been to prove the falsity of Christian claims. Even a concern for history got pushed aside as advocates for this point of view rushed to impress their anti-Christian theories on the public consciousness. I certainly agree that the findings illuminate a very complex world of First Century Judaism, one which was only sketched for us by Josephus. I agree that should be the focus. But the fact is that there is a “war going on between Christians and anti-Christians. It is to be expected that one or the other would try to set the agenda. Unfortunate, but expected.

[kawaii]

Whereas the evangelical attempts still use the scrolls to try to discredit the septuagint... if hebrew copies of the septuagint (which have been found at qumran) were in fact written in jerusalem it would indicate that there was in fact more than one flavor of the hebrew scriptures ‘in play’ at the time of Christ...