How many times have you asked or been asked this question: How can I learn about the Dead Sea Scrolls in a way that I can understand what is going on? Books about the DSS tend to be very academic and for specialists, so I was pumped when I saw this book: my colleague and friend, Joel Willitts, has a new book: The Dead Sea Scrolls.

The first thing to say is that an introduction that lay folks can read needs to be brief: a 400 page introduction won’t fit the bill. Joel’s book is 32 pages — glossy, colored, and filled with pictures and maps and graphs.

The second thing is that it’s got to have prose that keeps our attention: this book does that.

Third: it’s got to have good pictures and good maps and good graphs. This book’s got them.

If you need a brief, readable and illustrated introduction, this book is it.