Lot's Wife
WITH Jordan and Israel in uneasy peace, silence still reigns over the wilderness of Judaea, and a visitor to Qumran and the caves of the Dead Sea finds nothing but solitude and the signs of former occupation, both ancient and modern. The silence of Qumran is not shared by its would-be interpreters. Scholarly contri- butions continue to breed fast, although all the finds are not yet published. It is hard to believe from the massive bibliographies that the work of assessment is only just beginning; but it seems unlikely that any- thing startlingly new will now emerge from the finds, except perhaps hidden treasure.
Besides the learned works there is a growing num- ber of books for the general reader. They provide admirable floor space for the fanatical extremist, the die-hard apologist and the militant agnostic. Professor F. F. Bruce is none of these. Like Lot's wife, he has not been afraid to look back in the direction of the Cities of the Plain, and his Second Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Paternoster Press, 10s. 6d.), al- though they are not so monumental as a pillar, are certainly well seasoned with salt. Succinct and dis- criminating in choice of facts, fair-minded in inter- pretation, sensible and scholarly in his conclusions, Professor Bruce has produced the best and most readable book on the subject in England—and at a
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