A correction to "Digging the Bible: The Weirdo Cult that Saved the Bible." It is mistaken to write "There are Greek translations of the Bible that date from the fourth century A.D., several hundred years after the scrolls" because there are earlier examples. In fact, the Scrolls from Qumran caves as well as other sites near the Dead Sea include some Greek translations of parts of the Hebrew Bible.

On the other hand, the article is quite correct that Essenes lived at Qumran and wrote some of the scrolls, though some wish to deny that history, and may add comments attempting to deny.

For those interested in the identities of the "Wicked Priest" and the "Teacher of Righteousness" see the online paper "Jannaeus, His Brother Absalom, and the Teacher of Righteousness"

It is mistaken to write "There are Greek translations of the Bible that date from the fourth century A.D., several hundred years after the scrolls" because there are earlier examples.

I think that David Plotz meant (or at least I took him to mean) "extant." AFAIK, the earliest extant manuscripts of the Greek translation of the Bible (the Septuagint) date from about 350 CE. Of course the Greek translations were actually accomplished around 150 BCE, but none of those existed before the Qumran discovery. If there are earlier "extant" examples, I'd like to know about them.

For examples of pre-70 CE/AD manuscripts with Greek translations, see, for instance, P. W. Skehan, E. Ulrich, and J. E. Sanderson, Qumran Cave 4.IV: Palaeo-Hebrew and Greek Biblical Manuscripts ( Discoveries in the Judaean Desert IX ; Oxford: Clarendon, 1992). xiii + 250 pp. + xlvii plates. It includes Qumran Cave 4 Greek translations of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

none of those existed before the Qumran discovery.

I thought that was my point. I will have to go back to the original article, but I think that Plotz was making the point that no extant Greek manuscripts existed before 350 CE until the discovery of the scrolls at Qumran.