The following review is largely based on a submission by Sis. Connie Bonvechio of Palm Beach Gardens, FL. We thank her for her information.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh is purported to be an expose of “why a handful of religious scholars conspired to suppress the revolutionary contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Since their discovery over 40 years ago, access to the Dead Sea Scrolls has been severely restricted by a small group of researchers. The authors lay the blame on the Roman Catholic Church, which they claim has exercised strong control over the international team of translators. The church, they say, has dragged her feet in allowing the release of any work regarded as contrary to Catholic dogma.
One translator, prominently featured by the authors, is an agnostic who claims his colleagues were more concerned about party-line religion than with getting the material available to the public.
According to him, the Qumram religious group reckoned that their Davidic Messiah would be a son of God, begotten of God. They did not, however, believe he would be God come to earth as a human being.
From what the authors say, it would appear that the Qumram group understood the Old Testament as we do. This would obviously be disturbing to the established church, which is astray on such major points as the trinity and the immortality of the soul.
The authors approach the Bible as a piece of literature with no appreciation or complete understanding for its message. They see through the fallacies of orthodox Christianity and they understand history. Their view of the established church is evident in the following: “The church today, after all, is less a religious than a social, cultural, political and economic institution. Its stability and security rest on factors quite remote from the creed, the doctrine and the dogma it promulgates” (p. 234).
Sis. Connie concluded her submission with the observation: “As a believer in the complete word of God, this book only reinforces the many scriptural doctrines which separate us from orthodox Christians. There is no need to revise the New Testament; it agrees completely with the Old Testament. It is the Truth of God!”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One