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 twentieth 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 closely with Eisenman - one of the foremost experts in Biblical archeology and scholarship - Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh have succeeded in uncovering the story of how up to 75 per cent of the eight hundred ancient Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, hidden for some nineteen centuries, still remain concealed from the world today. But their book is more than an expose of a bitter 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 Through interviews, historical analysis and a close study of both published and unpublished scroll material, the authors are able to reveal the true cause of all the trouble, for these documents disclose nothing less than a new account of the origins of Christianity and an alternative and highly significant version of much of the New Testament.