This emotional account of the events surrounding the discovery and translation of the scrolls attempts to uncover the theological and political efforts by individuals, governments, and religious institutions to keep controversial documents unpublished, ostensibly to preserve orthodox intepretations. The English authors, Baigent and Leigh, base their study on the work of Robert Eisenmen and other religious scholars who maintain that a conspiracy of consensus led to stagnant reinterpretation of old doctrine, rather than true research which would contest preconceived notions with newly discovered evidence. New theories by Eisenmen and others, which challenge the roots of Christianity as well as New Testament doctrine and history, are discussed. Standard works such as John M. Allegro's The Dead Sea Scrolls & the Christian Myth ( LJ 6/1/84), Roland De Vaux's Discoveries in the Judean Desert (Oxford Univ. Pr., 1977), and Geza Vermes's The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Viking, 1988. rev. ed.), and many others are preferable to this acrid introductory "expose."