Rating: 
Summary: Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Robert Eisenman
Review: ...Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh do a masterful job in telling the difference between just older versions of religious text that we already have and the more important sectarian writings. Depending on the date attributed to these extra biblical texts, many may have to re think what they think they know about, not only Christianity, but Judaism and Islam as well. The authors seemed to rely much on the prominent scholarship of one Robert Eisenman, who they admit is the force behind their investigation. I think the author's greatest achievement is putting the scholarship of Robert Eisenman into a form that is more digestible to the lay person...The information contained should be available to the masses and not just the scholarly stuffy types. For anyone who disagrees with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh's conclusions, I am interested in reading diametrically opposed works.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificient--uncovers decades of scholarly mishandling.
Review: The caves at Qumran in Palestine first began to yield up
the documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. It is only in the mid-1990's, however, that we have begun to get a good look at what they contain. _The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception_ attempts to explain the half-century delay.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh make a good case for their
hypothesis: that the scrolls contain information which challenges a Christian orthodoxy of nearly two millennia.
They detail the efforts of a select group of scholars, beholden to the Vatican by virtue of their sponsorship by
the Ecole Biblique, to conduct "damage control" by releasing
(and slowly at that) only those portions of the scrolls which
would not arouse controversy. The authors also float some explosive interpretations of the scrolls' significance-- they
suggest that, contrary to popular belief, the community at
Qumran may have been part of a Pre-Pauline "Christian" movement, with beliefs very unlike those of modern Christians
with regard to the deity of Christ, the virtue of faith over
works, etc.
_The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception_ is an intriguing account
of efforts on the part of scholars to gain access to the scrolls, a thought-provoking commentary on their contents,
and a marvellous piece of investigative journalism.
Rating: 
Summary: A lame attempt to find another religious conspiracy
Review: After reading "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," I read this book. It's a sequel, in a way. It's also a big disappointment. The author tries to create a controversy over the Dead Sea Scrolls, speculating about their content, and how that content will shake the foundations of the world's Bible-based religions. But it's all speculation. First of all, there's no indication that the Dead Sea Scrolls are full of radically new information. If you read books like "The Gnostic Gospels," or any recent book on the life of Jesus, you'll find a wide range of ideas about the Biblical period --- including the revolutionary program of the Essenes. The Dead Sea Scroll information is either a repeat of facts that are already known, or the information is new but not revolutionary. Second, the book describes a minor conspiracy to control the Dead Sea Scrolls, to keep them from public view. But that's understandable. No one should release a major archaeological discovery to the public without careful examination. We rely on scientists, scholars, and religious authorities to examine these artifacts FIRST. You wouldn't want anyone except qualified experts looking at them. Of course, once the experts have had their chance to examine the Scrolls, they should be released for examination (in some form) to everyone. But there's no cover-up. This book capitalizes on the success of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." The authors realized they had a cottage industry going when other people wrote their own Freemason/Christ conspiracy books. So they followed up with this sequel, trying desperately to create another story full of stunning revelations (and dark designs to keep you ignorant). But it's doesn't work.
Rating:
Summary: Again a great book !!!
Review: After reading the book you ask yourself what is there to hide that the roman catholic church doesn't want everybody to know. Was christ just a magician who played out a role as written in the old testament or was he a warrior, fighting roman oppresion or ....... Note: The Nag Hammadi Library found in 1945 was fully transleted in english in less then 30 years and publiced in 1977.
Rating: 
Summary: Putting together 2 broken ends
Review: An intersting yet all-too common take on religious controversy. Mystic isogesis is far too common amongst atheist and likeminded scholars (as is evident by the existance of this book) who at times seem to go out of their way to find a political conspiracy. Most of them are rediculous out-takes on medieval history; and are usually nothing but harmless science fiction novels. None-the-less, it appears as though the greatest archeological discovery of our time has turned into a conspiracy of allegorical conclusions. The author builds his entire hypothesis without even getting involved in manuscriptive textual criticisms. His assertions are made based on a allegorical hammering of the texts and the political agendas that are always supposedly surrounding the corruption of the Vatican. The irony is that there couldn't be anything more supportive of the Christian Hebrew canon than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Time after time after time the DSS verifies the LXX (Greek Old Testament) in opposition to the Masoretic text which alone makes up the Jewish canon. (Such is the case in Ps. 22 with "Pierced".) If you told a class of 30 to read, comment, and write a systematic theolgy of the Old Testament prophets on the subject of the Messianic age, you'd probably receive a large variety of mystical conclusions. In reality, one of these conclusions was the theology of the Qumran sect. The fact that they have some similarities with the Jewish writers of the New Testament does not support the conspiracy but actually works against it, since it proves that Christian Messianic theology is not as far-fetched in early Judaism as previously imagined. (As if it were not already self-evident, given the Messianic conclusions of Targum Yonaton in Isaiah.) Alot of people don't realize that some parts of Orthodox Judaism have believed in (and do believe in) 2 Messiahs: Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben David. Perhaps then, Orthodox Judaism is a break-off sect of Christianity? This hypothesis is akin to the irraneous conlusions made by Baigent and other mystics, but this won't stop hyper-zealous political conspiricists from writing best selling novels; of course.
Rating:
Summary: Good Readin'
Review: Fascinating study of 50 years of the politics of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Does it just take that long to read ancient texts, or are the people who posess them holding out for some reason? Read this with Baigent's "Messianic Legacy" and Barbara Thiering's excellent book "Riddle of the DS Scrolls." Christianity could be the penultimate conspiracy. (While you're at it, make sure to start with "Holy Blood, Holy Grail".
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Great, well-researched, well-organized, informative and enjoyable book!!
Rating:
Summary: an exciting tale
Review: Hidden for nineteen centuries, the Dead Sea Scrolls-the earliest biblical manuscripts-were found in caves near Jerusalem more than forty years ago. Yet the content of a large part of the eight hundred ancient
Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts remains concealed from the general public. In this remarkable book Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of the best-seller Holy Blood, Holy Grail, reveal new material that places the Scrolls in the time of Jesus and offers nothing less than a new
account of Christianity and an alternative and highly significant version of much of the New Testament. Working closely with Professor Robert Eisenman-one of the foremost experts in biblical archaeology and scholarship-and with other scholars in both America and Britain, Baigent and Leigh set out to discover
why the content of the Scrolls was kept secret for so long. Their investigation began in Israel, led to the corridors of the Vatican, and into the offices of the Inquisition. They encountered a rigidly held
"consensus" on interpretation and dating, and discovered just how fiercely orthodox biblical scholarship was prepared to fight to retain its monopoly on the materials and their interpretation. But The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception is much more than an expose of a bitter struggle among scholars. Extensive interviews, historical analysis, and a close study of both published and unpublished materials led
Baigent and Leigh to startling new views about the early Christians-for the Scrolls identify the group known as Christians as a band of fervent theocratic revolutionaries intent on breaking- Roman control of the
Holy Land and restoring the kingdom of Israel to its rightful Judaic dynasty, of which Jesus himself was a member. The Dead Sea Scrolls have been news since their discovery, and with the release of the Scrolls themselves by the Huntington Library, they are on front pages and in prime time all over America. This remarkable
book tells the story of a great archaeological find and the mysteries surrounding it.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting to a novice, but who knows
Review: I enjoyed the book, but have little to draw upon for critique. Like any other conspiracy book, the authors could easily be manipulating the facts or leaving some out to cause me to believe their thesis. I chose this book as the first book on the subject matter and now feel the need to read more books on the scrolls to verify for myself whether the book is just good reading or an accurate account. I expected nothing more from it as I don't take anything at face value. It definitely got my attention and made me want to explore more books on the subject. For that, I would give it an A+, but back off on the fifth star until I can confirm its accuracy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Highly recomended work on the DSS...
Review: I found the book very interesting and well documented. I wish I would have read this book before I went to see the DSS in Israel. It would have enriched the experience even more. I guess I need to go back and take closer look. While reading the book I found myself both angered as well as saddened that the Roman Catholic hierarchy still, to this day, pursue a course that is simply medeviel. I wonder how many of the documents were actually destroyed in this scandal. I, also, enjoyed a fresh look at James the brother of Yeshua and Saul (Paul). I reserve right to make up my own mind as to what the DSS means to me but that pre-supposes that I would have been able to get access to the information in the first place without the efforts of the authors and the likes of Robert Eisenman. Thanks...
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