The first time was a few years after the scrolls were discovered when, contrary to nitwits like Baigent and Leigh (“The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception”), the scrolls began to be published. (For an account of the publishing history of the scrolls — other than simply looking at the copyright dates in the DJD series [Discoveries in the Judaean Desert], see VanderKam’s book for non-specialists, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, pp. 187-193 of the first edition).  So much for the conspiracy.  Wow, that took a lot of research.

Anyway, the conspiracy died again, when the Qumran scrolls went digital.  I had access to them in grad school.

Now, the scrolls are all going online. ! GASP !  WHAT ARE THEY THINKING !!!  HOW DID THEY GET THIS PAST THE VATICAN?!?  WHAT WILL THE ILLUMINATI DO NEXT!?!  I’m on the edge of my seat.

Granted, it will take a while to put everything up online in high resolution, but before you think that’ll give the insiders a chance to obscure the damning truths in them that will overturn all that we think about the church (despite them being published since the fifties) you should realize that high resolution, scalable photographs of the scrolls have been available for years. I remember seeing the set made by BYU at least ten years ago, but I didn’t have a few thousand dollars (or that much interest) to purchase a set.  Glad I waited.