The scrolls also continue to rivet attention because besides some 200 biblical manuscripts, they contain poems and stories about giants and angels, horoscopes, calendars. They speak hazily of "Sons of the Dawn," "Sons of the Light," The "Man of the Lie," the "Teacher of Righteousness" and a dying messianic figure.

This vagueness and florid characterization has given rise to loose speculation about the identity of these figures and propelled scholars of the scrolls in bizarre directions.

For example, John Allegro wrote a best selling book on the scrolls then later authored a 1970 book entitled, "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross," in which he contended that Judaism and Christianity were products of an ancient cult based on sex and mushrooms.

For more than 40 years, access to the scrolls was limited to a small coterie of editors - all Christian - working under the supervision of the Israel Antiquities Authority. That gave rise to accusations that the scrolls contained information that undermined the fundamental tenets of Judaism and Christianity and that the scholars were engaged in a cover-up.

Jewish scholars of the scrolls have been accused of trying to make Christianity look more like Judaism, while Christian academics have been accused of trying to make Judaism resemble Christianity.

The Rev. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a Roman Catholic priest and eminent biblical scholar in Jerusalem, says part of the ongoing fascination with the scrolls is rooted in the same sentiment that fueled the purchase of more than 40 million copies of "The Da Vinci Code."

The public is increasingly interested in the "unofficial" story of the Bible in this era of skepticism, he said.

"People more and more are feeling extremely let down by politicians and religious leaders. They think they are being conned, manipulated and deceived," said Murphy-O'Connor.

"That's why the church itself is responsible for the success of 'The Da Vinci Code' - because it keeps so many secrets and has let so many people down on the issue of pedophilia," he said.

Still, while the Da Vinci Code is speculation glazed with a thin patina of fact, the scrolls have proved authentic.

But the scrolls will continue to provide fodder for some who treat them as a religious Rorschach test, in which they see what they want to see, regardless of broad scholarly agreement to the contrary.

The intrigue and controversies surrounding the scrolls show no signs of diminishing.

Charlesworth of Princeton Theological Seminary believes that Jewish theology of Jesus' time may have drawn heavily on ideas from Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic pre-Islamic religion of ancient Persia.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Antiquities Authority will issue a report later this year rejecting the widely held theory that the ancient town of Qumran and its Essene inhabitants produced the scrolls. It will say the scrolls were deposited in the caves by Jews fleeing Roman persecution, said Yuval Peleg, one of the report's authors.

More tantalizing yet is the conclusion of a study of the so-called "Copper scroll" and its references to caches of buried treasure in the hills of Judea.

Murphy-O'Connor said he and the study's editor, Emile Puech, have concluded that the scroll's allusions to treasure are not symbolic at all.

"Puech believes the treasure is real and so do I," Murphy-O'Connor said.