本书作者尽量涵盖最主要的领域，并且引入最新的信息。目前而言，第一批古卷被发现至今已经有六十多年了。在古卷的内容全部出版之后，我们才能从更宽广的视野谈论当初发生的事，并且概述当今的古卷研究处于什么样的阶段。 本书是对考古发现的古代经典文本做精细研究、考证的力作，有助于此研 究领域的当今学者明辨死海古卷研究的种种问题。
【名人推荐】
这本书对死海古卷的发现、意义、研究现状做出了清楚、细致、精彩的描述。若是有人对这些感兴趣，就应当一读。它不仅结构严谨，而且可读性强。
——Commonweal
引人入胜、简明易懂，还有很多珍贵照片。范德凯对死海古卷做出了深入、周密和公允的解读，而这正是我们非常需要的。
——Hebrew Studies
供会众使用的图书馆都应当购进此书，帮助读者理解死海古卷这一半个世纪前的重大发现意味着什么。
——Church & Synagogue Libraries
关于死海古卷的书籍有很多，唯有这本可以被视为最好的大众参考读物，它详尽地描述了考古遗址、文本和学术研究的历史。
——Journal of Biblical Literature

Since they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran in 1947, "The Dead Sea Scrolls" have aroused more fascination--and more controversy - than perhaps any other archaeological find. They appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus, and they continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their startling discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history. Collins vividly recounts how a Bedouin shepherd went searching for a lost goat and found the scrolls instead. He offers insight into debates over whether the Essenes were an authentic Jewish sect and explains why such questions are critical to our understanding of ancient Judaism and to Jewish identity. Collins explores whether the scrolls were indeed the property of an isolated, quasi-monastic community living at Qumran, or whether they more broadly reflect the Judaism of their time. And he unravels the impassioned disputes surrounding the scrolls and Christianity. Do they anticipate the early church? Do they undermine the credibility of the Christian faith? Collins also looks at attempts to "reclaim" the scrolls for Judaism after the full corpus became available in the 1990s, and at how the decades-long delay in publishing the scrolls gave rise to sensational claims and conspiracy theories.

With contributions from 100 distinguished scholars representing diverse traditions and fields of learning this is the most comprehensive critical synthesis of recent knowledge about the Dead Sea scrolls, and their historical, archaeological, linguistic and religious contexts. The Encyclopedia ranges widely to cover such topics as the political, social, and cultural backgrounds of the texts and their communities; methods of analysis and interpretation; the impact of the texts on the understanding of Judaism and Christianity; and much more - including balanced treatment of conflicts and controversies.

1947年春天,杰里科（Jericho）附近山洞的隐藏古卷，即最古老的犹太文献手稿，今天被称作《死海古卷〉（The Dead Sea Scrolls）的偶然发现,导致了本世纪最惊人的发现之一。1948—1956年间，11个藏有手稿的洞穴（被标示为1—11号洞），又在死海西岸的北部角落，即被称为库兰（Khirbet Qumran）的附近发现，从这些洞穴又发掘出大量的《旧约圣经》古卷和其它文献的手抄本