Dead Sea Scrolls' Authors?

Dead Sea Scrolls (britannica.com; cpart.byu.edu)

"Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls 'Authors' Never Existed" (Time)

Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all -- a claim that has shaken the bedrock of biblical scholarship.

Elior, who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, claims that the Essenes were a fabrication by the 1st century A.D. Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus and that his faulty reporting was passed on as fact throughout the centuries. More>>

• See pictures of Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land.
• Read a TIME cover story on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
• View this article on Time.com