The fourth in the series The Bible as Book, this volume charts the extraordinary developments witnessed over the last fifty years, since the chance discovery in 1947 of biblical scrolls in a cave in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. This collection of articles represents cutting-edge research by an international team of scholars. Together, they chart the findings and controversies sparked off by the discovery and publication of some 900 scrolls which have transformed our understanding of the state of the biblical text at the turn of the last millennium. With subjects encompassing 'rewritten' scriptures, canonical development, and the ramifications of the Qumran discoveries for modern textual criticism and the Bible today, this accessible volume holds something for both scholar and lay person alike, and marks a major contribution to the field of Qumran studies