Things ain't what they used to be

For decades now we have been told by the scholars that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written by a group of ascetic monastic types called the Essenes who lived around the Dead Sea and who may well have influenced Jesus.

Now there is uproar in the academic world at a new theory that not only disputes this but claims that the Essenes didn't actually exist. They were invented, in literature, much later. Professor Rachel Elior claims that the scrolls were actually written by Sadducee priests living in Jeruslaem and hidden in the caves at Qumran when they turned their backs on the temple after its desecration by the Greeks in 175 BC.

For more details see here: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5927336.ece