Religion: Crucifixion Before Christ

The manuscripts known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls," found almost nine years ago by a shepherd in a Jordan cave (TIME, Sept. 5, 1955), have raised some haunting questions. Is there any relation between the first Christians and a sect of Jews who founded a religious community at Qumrân in Jordan a hundred years before Christ? Is there any relation between Jesus Christ and the Qumrân community's "Teacher of Righteousness"? These questions constitute the great cliff hanger of contemporary Christian studies. Last week fresh hints came from John Allegro, a lecturer in Semitic Philology at England's University of Manchester, one of...

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