Lim examines scriptural interpretations found in the scrolls excavated from the caves of Qumran, arguably the greatest manuscript discovery in Palestine of the twentieth century. What was the ancient interpreters' attitude to the biblical texts? Did they consider them `sacred' in the sense that the words were the inviolable utterances of God? Or did they when necessary modify and adapt holy writ for their own purposes? After fifty years of intensive research it
must be asked just how these scrolls shaped the study of Bible interpretation in the Second Temple Period.