The papers published in this volume were presented at the Fourth Orion International Symposium (Jerusalem, 1999), whose focus was Jewish history in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The first section, "History of the Jews and Judaism," is devoted to specific topics in Jewish history, such as historical references in the Scrolls, comparative studies between the Scrolls and Josephus, and issues of Jewish nationalism. The second section, "Community and Covenant," comprises studies of community, Jewish law, and the concept of covenant. The third section, "Natural Sciences and the Scrolls," reports on examinations of DNA preserved in leather used for the Scrolls, of dust found in jars from Qumran, of the nature of the stitching of the Scrolls, and of the composition of the pottery found at Qumran.

David Goodblatt, Ph.D. (1972), Brown University, is Professor of History, University of California, San Diego.
Avital Pinnick, Ph.D. (1996), Harvard University, is Chief of Publications at the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew University. She has published Pseudepigraphic Perspectives (Brill, 1999) and The Damascus Document (Brill, 1999).
Daniel R. Schwartz, Ph.D. (1980), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is Professor at the Department of Jewish History, Hebrew University. His publications include Agrippa I: The Last King of Judaea (Tübingen, 1990) and Studies in the Jewish Background of Christianity (Tübingen, 1992).