Could this really have happened?

Hugh Schonfield covers the origins in some depth in The Passover Plot-Element Books. Whether Nazareanes(Mandaeans),Nazoreans(Notsrim),Nazirites(Hegesippus claims James,the brother of Jesus and head of the community, was a Nazirite--which is at odds with Jesus being 'gluttonous and a winebibber'-Matt 12:19), Schonfield contends that most of these sects had northern (Israel/Samaritan)roots, and were pre-Christian.

Got that post handy, Spiderman? Must have missed that thread. I`ll see if I can dig up the apologetic reasons for dismissing extra-canonical books.

Thanks, bud. Before a nosy admin pulls us up, any thoughts on the exact Hebrew word for 'book', bearing in mind our concept of book might be more in line with a codex?

As activity on this thread is stagnant at present, I thought we might pursue the 'book' biz a little further.'Megillah' as Hebrew for scroll developed shortly before the Babylonian exile-'Ancient Scribes and Scripts and the Clues They Leave'--Richard Hanson.I haven`t had time to mull it through yet, but my thinking goes somewhat along these lines---
The longest scroll found to date measured 32 feet (67 columns?) which must limit the length of the 'book' contained within, therefore the 'book'/scroll found by Hilkiah must have only contained a limited amount of the Torah (usually believed to be Deuteronomy). Therefore, where were the other books of the Torah found?

First up, I don`t know whether the whole of the Torah will fit on one scroll. Sites I`ve Googled show either two or five scrolls produced today for Jewish ceremonies.If ancient scrolls were shorter, then maybe less could be written on one scroll. Materials differ in rolling size,e.g. papyrus versus parchment versus modern paper. However, I imagine modern scrolls contain vowels and thus would be longer.2Kings 22:->refer to a singular 'book'/scroll repeatedly and I wonder where and when the other books were recovered. Were they still hidden? Did Hilkiah get the writing urge? Is the whole episode a bottleneck in what came down to us? During renovations to the Temple, the 'book of the law' was found. Was the scroll of sufficient length to hold the full Torah? Was the whole Torah referred to as a 'book' prior to Hilkiah`s discovery? Was a number of scrolls referred to collectively as a 'book' pre-Hilkiah? Maybe the Hebrew word for 'book' has a couple of meanings (individual and a collective)?
I can`t find any discussion on the subject though I`m sure someone has delved into it in the past.