S: Is for Scrolls who have Secrets to tell!

With Easter around the corner, there are controversies that make us wonder at the whys of these holidays. After reading "The Dead Sea Scroll Deceptions," I questioned the oldest Biblical manuscripts in existence. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves near Jerusalem in 1947, only to be kept a tightly held secret for nearly fifty more years, until the Huntington Library unleashed a storm of controversy in 1991 by releasing copies of the Scrolls. In this gripping investigation, authors Baigent and Leigh set out to discover how a small coterie of orthodox biblical scholars gained control over the Scrolls, allowing access to no outsiders and issuing a strict "consensus" interpretation.

The authors' questions begin in Israel, leading them to the corridors of the Vatican and into the offices of the Inquisition. With the help of independent scholars, historical research and careful analysis of available texts, the authors reveal what was at stake for these orthodox guardians: The Scrolls present startling insights into early Christianity. Insights that challenge what we have been lead to believe.

The Essenes are at the bottom of this conspiracy, and few people know really who they were. In a nut shell, they were a third religious sect during the time of Christ that lived. Keeping to themselves, they lived in simple communities. The Essenes practiced the seventh day sabbath, believed in reincarnation, non-violence to all living creatures and the sharing of all material possessions. They were uninvolved in the politics of the Sadducees and Pharisees, the ruling factions, and shunned publicity. Because of the discovery of dead sea scroll material, this ancient sect and their teachings are back and alive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden by this ancient people long ago in the caves of Qumram. The writing, stemming around 80 A.D., says that the Essenes were Jews by birth but seemed to have a greater affection for one another than they did for the Pharisees and Sadducees. Their belief in God was extraordinary.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1945, yet it took 50 years for the information to leak out about these extraordinary people. What was so shocking to the scholars who were finally allowed to examined a portion of these ancient documents was that here was a community of people practicing Christianity, at least 200 years before the time of Christ. Both the practice of baptism and of the sharing of the wine are recorded as part of their practices long before Jesus and John the Baptist popularized them. The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception is a book that details the explosive contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the Church conspired to suppress them.












One has to wonder after reading and researching the F.A.C.T.S this book presents why keeping these documents a secret is the only thing all religions agree upon. What is really hiding in the text of these worn out pages that scares them all so much. Hasn't it been said "and the truth shall set you free". These are F.A.C.T.S that need to be examined.