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More abount monks, Durant etc.
Folks: Perhaps this is not too interesting, but it may be helpful to
evaluate the preconceptions that Fathers de Vaux, Milik etc. may have brought
to their study of the DSS in the early 1950s, I note the following from the
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 5 (1922) edited by James
Hastings:"The Epulones or Artemis at Ephesus were called 'Essenes'(Paus. vii.
13, 1 . . . ), or 'king bees'; but the name is specially applied to a
remarkable pre-Christian order of Jewish monks . . . . " and "Thus it is
noticeable that Philo, for example, omits any reference to the presence of
Essenes in the cities of Palestine; his aim is to bring out their
semi-monastic existence." and "Newman's lines, "Now truant in untimely rest,
The mood of Essene' indicate the popular estimate of these Jewish monks." and
"Its ranks were recruited from without, like a monastic brotherhood, and its
ascetic practices were different from those of the Rechabites." This article
is interesting and draws together many ancient references to Essenes in a
single place.
With respect to Durant and his nonacceptance by high school A.P. scholars, I
noticed in the New Revision Series of Contemporary Authors, Vol. 4 that among
other things he was awarded the Huntigton Hartford Foundation award of
literature in 1963, received the Pulitizer Prise for general nonfiction in
1968 for "Rousseau and Revolution" and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
1977. There was apparently some criticism of him for attempting to handle
sixty centuries of human history that resulted inevitably in error.
I also noted in his obituary that he was excommunicated from the Catholic
church - but this was probably because of his Jesuit training. Just joking.
Someone asked about George Sarton. The National Cycopedia of American
Biography, Vol. XLV at 430 (1962) says that he was born in Ghent, Belgium in
1884. He graduated B.S. in 1906 and Sc.D in 1911 at the University of Ghent
and was medalist in chemistry at four Belgain universities in 1907. He
taught at numerous schools including Harvard, Radcliffe, Brown, Kansas,
Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Indiana and in the department of historical research
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. I didn't spot any Roman
church affiliation.
Mark Dunn