If you've had it up to your belt buckle with weirdos telling you that the Dead Sea Scrolls are full of stuff refuting Christianity, this is Book A-1 for you. On the contrary: The DSS provide us with a glimpse at a parallel movement with many of the same (but not entirely the same) thoughts and interpretive methods as the Christian faith employed.

This book is so good that I'm going to put off a project I had planned about the DSS -- with Pate's detailed data, you don't need anything else. Pate provides a listing of what is in the Scrolls and where they were found -- just in case some weirdo tells you something is in the Scrolls, you can at least make a general check to see if a certain document exists and whether it is likely to contain what is claimed. Pate also gives neat summaries of controversy surrounding the publication of the DSS (hint: it's not the big deal some think it is/was) and exposes some of the errors at the roots of nutcases like Eisenmann and Theiring.

And it gets better. Pate also gives some detailed accounts of how the Qumranites did their exegesis -- more nails in Tom Paine's "the NT writers manipulated the OT'" coffin. There's plenty of helpful material on eschatology. And here's another surprise: Could the heresy at Colosse have been related to Essenism? Read it and believe!

Pate's writing style is tedious at times, as is his continual references to other writers (though N. T. Wright is one of them!) but you will be well rewarded for getting through it all with information that will send the critics to the bottom of the Dead Sea. Communities of the Last Days is a book I would regard as a "must have" for any budding apologist.