This book comprises a collection of fifteen essays on different aspects of Dead Sea Scrolls study from a good line up of leading scholars in the field. The essays are loosely grouped under four headings: ‘The Qumran Community, Essenes and Other Sects’, ‘the Qumran Biblical Texts and the Masoretic Text’, ‘Sectarian Law and Normative Jewish Law’, and ‘Theology of the Qumran Community, Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity’. Each section is headed by a reasonably general article with other articles in the section with a narrower focus.

Although the articles span a wide range of topics, three themes are particularly apparent, the first two of which represent key trends in current scholarship. First, some articles emphasise the diversity of Judaisms that existed around the turn of the Era, and explore the degree of similarity between the Qumran community and other strands of Judaism at the time. Second, some articles explore the fluidity of understanding around the turn of the Era as to which books were Scripture, with books such as Jubilees having scriptural authority, and emphasise the apparent lack of preference for any one textual tradition. Finally, some articles explore the differing views of Messiah(s) and related figures in the Dead Sea Scrolls.