TO get an idea of what we are up I against, imagine taking a full annual series of TIME. 52 or 53 issues, and tearing them into tiny bits. Then throw 80% of the fragments into the fire. With what's left, try to reconstruct the issues as good as new." That is the way German Scholar Claus-Hunno Hunzinger, speaking to a TIME correspondent, described the work of an international team laboring over Dead Sea Scroll fragments in Jerusalem. TIME'S cover story this week gives not only a full account of how that complex and difficult work is carried on but also reports the first solid news of the newest Dead Sea Scroll find--"Cave Eleven"--and a preview of its possible contents. See RELIGION, Out of the Desert.

THE cover painting reproduces a Dead Sea Scroll fragment, of the kind that is being gathered by the thousands from the Qumran caves. Artist Aaron Bohrod included coins and a lamp of the sort found in the Qumran ruins, and added a special symbol: the drawing of the goat on the small blue tag, which represents an unconfirmed but attractive legend that the first Dead Sea Scroll find was brought about when a goat strayed into a desert cave. The text of the fragment pictured is from a commentary on Habakkuk, in which an unknown essene writer sought to tell the story of his sect by a highly fanciful commentary on the Old Testament book. The fragment first quotes from Habakkuk : . . . in order that he may look on their feast . . . "This means," says the commentary, "that the Wicked Priest pursued the Righteous Teacher to swallow him up in his holy wrath at the place of his captivity. In the season of the solemn festival the Day of Atonement, he appeared suddenly before them to confound them and to make them stumble on the fast day, their solemn Sabbath." Then Habakkuk continues. Thou art sated with shame instead of glory, drink thou too and be poisoned -- of which the commentator says: "This means the priest whose shame exceeded .. ." And here the fragment breaks off.

THERE are still some sailing yachts' men who call motor boats "stinkpots," but these days, more often than not, they mutter it under their breath: the next man at the bar is probably a powerboat owner. The surge of powerboating since World War II has made boating the No. 1 U.S. family sport; war-inspired developments in hull and motor design have produced craft for every purse and purpose. For a crafty story and a colorful array of boats, see SPORT, Powered Pleasure.

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