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Re: question
On Thu, 11 Apr 1996, Niels Peter Lemche wrote:
> David,
>
> If you want to look for the origins of sectarianism, why not have a
> look on Isa 4?
Interesting suggestion.
>
> The question is whether you are looking for sectarianism inside a
> Jewish society of say the 3rd century, or at a society which is
> defining itself in a way to be likened to sectarianism - inside a
> more comprehensivive world.
Are these mutually exclusive alternatives? In the paper I mentioned I
also raised the possibility that the place of the priests vis a vis the
Hellenistic world could also be a factor in the priestly origin of
apocalypticism. Here Daniel is of some interest since the initial cycle
of stories seems to be pre-Maccabean and to deal with the situation of
Jewish civil servants in the service of an alien king.
I think that the internal and external issues are interactive. One of
the major factors internally seems to be the struggle over adoption of
Hellenistic culture, which comes to a head with Antiochus. Likewise, the
emergence of Judean society as a relatively insulated society on the
periphery of the Hellenistic world is likely to stimulate factionalism
within with conflict over purity issues, including marriage (I've been
re-reading Mary Douglas' Natural Symbols in an effort to come to some
understanding of this issue).
In the meantime, identification and classification of relevant literature
seems to me to be of primary importance (Michael's original question).
David Suter
Saint Martin's College