Maybe you popped over to the Science Museum of Minnesota to see their Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit this summer.

And just maybe it spurred a HUGE interest in finding out more about the scrolls, life during the time of Jesus, or Judaism. According to the SMM, “the scrolls have a profound impact of Christianity, Judaism, the Muslim faith, and you’ll see examples of how their words have echoed in these three great religions for 200 years.”

We at the UST libraries are pleased to be able to help you find out more about some of the oldest surviving written documents by offering you 24/7 access to The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  To supplement that, we have many other resources that may be of interest.    The Encyclopedia of Religion puts the Dead Sea Scrolls within the context of the major world religions.  The Encyclopedia Judaica can answer your questions about Judaism.   The Oxford Islamic Studies Online gives you background information on the Islamic world.  And the Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus include articles on life during the time of Jesus, as well as the life of Jesus.

These are just a few of the hundreds of e-books we have on religion.  Using this Reference Resource tool you can do keyword searches to find more e-books on religion or history or just about any topic you can think of.  (Please note, you are not searching the content of e-books, simply the titles and subject headings of e-books).

For those of you still interested in seeing the Science Museum exhibit, you still have time.  The Dead Sea Scrolls ends October 24, 2010.