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Re: Essene name
Ian Hutchesson wrote:
>
> >4Q Therapeia which reports of the rounds of the Qayyepha/Kefa (leader)
> >among the sick and the applications of medicines. Josephus mentions their
> >use of roots and stones to cure distempers (Wars II.viii.6). Knowledge and the
> >Healing arts seem to be associated with the Essenes. Since Asayya would be
> >transliterated to "Therapeutae" for the Egyptian group, I can see the etymology
> >from Asayya to Essenoi.
> Sorry to interrupt your reverie, Jack, but I truly don't think
> "transliterated" is what you mean.
Gosh, Ian. I haven't been in a reverie since Neil Armstrong walked
on the moon....Oh..that's a revelry...on second thought, maybe I was.
Perhaps "asayya" is a transliteration
> from some arcane script. How 'bout the less highfalootin' "translated".
Nope, I meant transliterated.
>
> Oh, and where do I find a reference to "asayya": I couldn't find it in Josephus.
I'll quote John Allegro in "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth"
1991 Promethues, p12:
"Although the name `Essene' was known only in its TRANSLITERATED Greek
forms, Essenoi, or Essaioi, there seemed good reason it represented an Aramaic,
ie Semitic, word meaning `physician' (asa, plural asayya), and reflected the
popular idea that these pious people, like Jesus and his followers, exercised
power over demons, an essential part of folk-medicine"
Aramaic ASAYYA to Greek ESSAIOI. Sounds transliterated to me.
In short, I agree with Dr. Allegro. Since the Egyptian counterparts
of the ASAYYA called themselves a TRANSLATED "Therapeutae" it works for me.
Jack
Jack Kilmon
Houston, Texas
JPMan@accesscomm.net