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In the spring of 1947, a shepherd boy searching for a lost sheep in the barren cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea, discovered a cave that contained Hebrew scrolls hidden inside earthenware jars. Those and other scrolls found in the area in subsequent years—collec- tively spoken of as the Dead Sea Scrolls—had lain undisturbed for nearly two thousand years, carefully wrapped and hidden away during the turbulent years when Judea challenged the might of the Roman empire. Was this part of the official library of Jerusalem, carted away to safety before the city and its temple fell in A.D. 70, or—as most scholars assume—a library of the Essenes, a sect of hermits with messianic preoccupations? The opinions are divided, for the li- brary contained both traditional biblical texts as well as writings dealing with the sect's customs, organization, and beliefs. One of the longest and most complete scrolls, and perhaps the most dramatic, deals with a future war, a kind of Final War. Titled by scholars The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Dark- ness, it envisages spreading warfare—local battles that will first in- volve Judea's immediate neighbors, which shall increase in feroc- ity and scope until the whole ancient world would be engulfed: "The first engagement of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness, that is against the army of Belial, shall be an attack upon the troops of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistine area; then upon that of the Kittians of Assyria: and upon those violators of the Covenant who give them aid... ." And after those battles, "they shall advance upon the Kittians of Egypt" and "in due time . against the kings of the north." In this War of Men, the scroll prophesied, the God of Israel shall take an active role: On the day the Kittians fall, there shall be mighty combat and carnage, in the presence of the God of Israel; For that is the day which He appointed of old for the final bat- tle against the Sons of Darkness. THE WARS OF MAN