Over the last two years a controversy has erupted in the world's press over the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in caves 20 miles east of Jerusalem between 1947 and 1956. Professor Geza Vermes of Oxford calls it "the academic scandal par excellence of the 20th century", Professor Morton Smith of Columbia University protests that "there is no justification" for the cover-up, and Professor Robert Eisenman of California says, "we're tired of being treated contemptuously". Working with Eisenman - one of the experts in biblical archaeology and scholarship - Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh succeeded in uncovering the story of how and why up to 75 per cent of the 800 ancient Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, hidden for some 19 centuries, still remain concealed from the world today. But their book is more than an expose of a struggle between scholars who have begun passing round bootlegged photographs of scrolls yet to be released. Through interviews, historical analysis and a close study of both published and unpublished scroll material, the authors are able to reveal the cause of all the trouble, for these documents disclose a new account of the origins of Christianity and an alternative and significant version of much of the New Testament.