In the latest effort by journalism to hail the findings of a single individual researcher against a whole history of prior research CNN.com refers to a Time magazine article as "Dead Sea Scrolls Shocker". This is the sort of headline I would expect in the National Enquirer or something equally as brain dead.

 

The researcher claims that the Essenes (seen as the keeper/transcribers of the scrolls) never existed and that they were "likely" made up by Josephus in an attempt to pump up Judaism in the eyes of his Roman masters.

 

REALITY CHECK:

 

– Time interviews one other scholar and dedicates a single line to him in response to the entire article.

– Even if the Essenes didn’t exist the scrolls still do and still say what they say…the Essenes existance matters little to Biblical scholarship in comparison to the scrolls themselves

– This is one scholar weighing in against decades of modern scholarship that says otherwise

 

CONCLUSION: Controversial religious stories sell magazines…expecially "shockers" and Time knows this – no other magazine has featured Jesus on the cover more than Time.

 

Here’s the link to the article if you’re interested: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885421,00.html?cnn=yes