ABSTRACT

One would hardly expect the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls to become the subject of a contemporary battle on the Internet, yet, the young scholar, Raphael Golb, resorted to numerous blogs under diverse aliases to defend his father’s theory of the Scrolls’ origins.

He started a blog; then another and another, each under a different name. The aliases begot other aliases known on the Internet known as sock puppets: 20, 40, 60, 80. The sock puppets debated with other posters, each time linking to other sock puppets to support their arguments, creating the impression of an army of engaged scholars espousing his [father’s] ideas. 1