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Essene name
Jack Kilmon wrote:
> 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."
All exorcisms in the Gospels are achieved by word of mouth alone. The Gospels
contain 12 healing narratives dealing with physical: illness 3 refer to cures
from blindness, two from leprosy, and one each of fever, hemorrhage,
deaf-muteness, a withered arm, paralysis, dropsy and lameness. With the
exception of healing by command alone (which took place on the sabbath) and two
specific cases of faith healing (the blind beggar from Jericho and the
centurion's servant from Capernaum), Jesus cured by means of physical contact
with the sick or dead person.
If these cures were attributable to "folk medicine," they would not have been
considered "miracles," would they?
> 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.
> 4Q Therapeia
>1. The report of the Kepha being an acount of 2. his rounds of the afflicted
>(among) the guests: supplies of 3. medicines [...] swelling [...] 4. which
>distended him through a kind of flabbiness to wasting: 5. a braying of stalks
>of Mephibosheth 6. in the smegma (found) in the sheath of the penes of kids.
>7. The ulcer of Hyrcanus Yannai was drawn and 8. the secretions pertaining to
>it that were discharging; also for 8a. Peter Yosai; 9. Colic - Zachariel
Yannai;
>10. Eli is witness, dictated by 10a. Omriel, QP (Kepha).
>John M. Allegro "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth" 1992 Prometheus,
>Pp235-240.
This does not seem to relate to the paragraph cited from your message
immediately above that says the Essenes used herbs and stones to cure
distempers.
OTOH, Ed Cook writes:
>With regard to the "translation" of 4Q "Therapeia":
>This text was a well-known obsession of Allegro's, who thought he saw all
>kinds of things in it that weren't there. The text in fact is gibberish (as
>is the "translation"), and the only conclusion to draw about it is that it
>was a writing exercise; see J. Naveh, "A Medical Document or a Writing
>Exercise? The So-called 4QTherapeia," Israel Exploration Journal 36 (1986),
>pp. 52-55.
Whew!!! Another one for Walter Miller... <g> (thanks again, Bob!)
Beruriah Bloom