So, What Do Scrolls Really Say? : * Religion: While they may reveal ancient philosophic turmoil, scholars say, the documents are not likely to change the practice of modern Judaism or Christianity.

NEW YORK —  First the Berlin Wall fell.

Then the Baltics won independence.

Now, freedom for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Sealed behind a wall of secrecy for as long as the Cold War, the full text of the legendary scrolls--which represent a window on early Christianity and ancient Judaism--soon will be released from academic bondage.

The unshackling began when some renegade scholars decided to publish previously secret parts of the scrolls. Hershel Shanks, a former lawyer and self-made historian, announced that he will print some of the text in his journal, Biblical Archaeology Review.

But before Shanks could act, he was eclipsed by William A. Moffett. The daring director of the Huntington Library in San Marino, Moffett has a white captain’s beard and a keen sense of dramatic timing. He made front-page news last week by declaring that he would immediately offer the library’s photos of the scrolls to bona fide researchers.

But even as they are about to be freed, the controversy that has swirled around the scrolls since 1947, when they were discovered by Bedouins in a desert cave, continues. The scholars who are official guardians of the text have called Shanks a thief and have threatened lawsuits. The liberators of the scrolls argue that their actions are the academic equivalent of the storming of KGB headquarters.

“They have been greedy in keeping the scrolls secret,” says Shanks. “They are the criminals.”

The obvious question: Why all the fuss?

The answer lies in the content of the documents and in a bitter fight that has consumed one small corner of academia for the better part of four decades.

On one side are the authorities appointed by Israel to safeguard and study the scrolls, written in ancient Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. Of the original seven curators, only one, Frank Cross of Harvard University, continues to work with the scrolls. The other six have passed their work on to successors who, with Cross, have exclusive access to the entire collection.

These official scholars have moved at an incredibly slow pace, all the while protecting their turf. When challenged, they claimed that wide release of the scrolls would erode the value of their work and lead to shoddy scholarship.

Opposing the insiders and cheering the renegades are hundreds of scholars denied access to the scrolls, one of whom, Geza Verme of Oxford University, has called it “the academic scandal par excellence of the 20th Century.” Some in this camp have died without ever realizing their dream of reading the text. Others have studied different periods of history, giving up their hopes of exploring a vast and important collection of ancient Jewish documents.

The secrecy surrounding the scrolls has fueled intense speculation about the contents of the text and conspiracy theories about their suppression. Most revolve around the idea that the scrolls contain startling information that would damage Christianity or Judaism.

Although the mystery has helped turn more than a few of these theories into books and articles, few authorities put much stock in them.

“These rumors are simply idiotic,” says Shaye Cohen, professor of Judaic studies at Brown University.

Instead, the outside experts offer a simpler explanation for the 40-year-old wall of secrecy: “It was scholars being very stupid and selfish,” Cohen says.

“It was simple greed,” adds Shanks. “There’s no conspiracy, no doctrinal suppression imposed by the Vatican. They (the official guardians) simply wanted to dominate an entire field of academic study for as long as they could. They wanted to be the unchallenged experts.”

For their part, the official guardians of the scrolls have stuck to the argument that publishing them would destroy their own work and allow for substandard translations and interpretations. When it became clear that copies would soon be available worldwide, they first threatened legal action. Then they backed down.

By late last week Cross, was declining interview requests, and Israeli officials were planning an international conference on the remaining secret texts.

The battle for the scrolls had been won by the outsiders.

Which leaves the matter of the scrolls themselves. Written on a variety of materials--leather, reed parchment, even copper--the scrolls are, according to the official analysis, writings of a small Jewish sect called the Essenes. The Essenes reportedly lived near the cave, now in Israel, where the first scrolls were found and were isolated from the mainstream of Jewish life.

But the portions of the 800 scrolls already released contain an extraordinary variety of ideas--so many, written in so many different hands, that it would be impossible for one small sect to have produced them, says Norman Golb of the University of Chicago. Almost all of the original base material of the Hebrew Bible is in the collection, along with psalms, rituals, initiation rites and heated arguments over matters of ethics and morals.

The scrolls even contain writings that may have been considered for inclusion in the modern Bible but were ultimately rejected. According to Golb, one scroll describes money as spiritual defiling, and another seems to advocate the use of animal sacrifices. A different text describes a “son of God” figure like Jesus, and yet another contains a debate on whether parts of today’s Bible should be considered sacred scripture.

Considering this variety, Golb believes that the scrolls are not the records of an unimportant sect but rather a collection drawn from the general Jewish culture during the years 200 BC through AD 70. He says the scrolls were probably placed in the caves to protect them from the Roman army, which destroyed the second Jerusalem Temple in AD 70.

“They show that Judaism was in great turmoil at the time,” he adds. “Judaism was much more uncertain of itself than the traditional scholars suggest and greatly influenced by internal and external stresses.”

At New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary, Prof. David Kraemer puts it more bluntly: “They were at each other’s throats. One very tantalizing example of this is the fact that, according to the scrolls, not all Jews believed in the idea of a personalized messiah. That’s just wrong.”

Other scrolls offer different points of view on the status of women--one argues that they are religious equals to men; another suggests that they are inferior. And the scrolls even disagree on the matter of religious heritage. One argues that religious identity is passed from mother to child. Another says it must be handed down by fathers.

If Golb and Kraemer are correct, both the official scholars and orthodox religious leaders will be forced to reconsider some longstanding assumptions.

“This is threatening to the reputations of the inner group of scholars because it means their original findings, which they have preached as gospel, are wrong. It is threatening for orthodox Judaism because none of the scrolls can be called rabbinic,” Golb says. “They have always claimed that the rabbis got their tradition from Moses. This would suggest they cannot make that claim.”

In addition, says Kraemer, the scrolls could give historical support to the Jewish groups that argue for a more liberal approach to matters of heritage and conversion. And Christians may be startled to learn that much of what Jesus says and does in the New Testament is deeply rooted in Jewish scripture and community life as recorded in the scrolls.

Besides the “son of God” passage cited by Golb, the scrolls contain allusion to rituals surrounding the breaking of bread--as in Christian communion--and references to the sharing of wealth and property later practiced by the apostles. It appears, adds Kraemer, that Jesus borrowed even more of what he preached from Jewish life in his time than was previously believed.

“You could make the argument that what was present was Christianity without Jesus,” he explains.

Probably nothing in these 2,000-year-old writings will change the practice of modern Judaism or Christianity. No faith-destroying scandal lurks in the scrolls.

But the release of the remaining secret texts will produce an outpouring of new books and papers by scholars who have waited much of their working lives to get access to these documents. As these experts offer new interpretations of the scrolls, they will breathe new life into the obscure specialty of Dead Sea Scroll research.

Along the way, some long-frustrated scholars may experience a kind of second life too. Golb, 65, speaks excitedly of sending his most gifted protege to California for a copy of the scrolls and dedicating the rest of his life to their study.

“I’ve thought about people who did their best work in their 70s and 80s. I hope I can do that too,” he says.

With the end of the academic war for freedom of the scrolls, he may get the opportunity.