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Re: Essene name
Dear Herb,
Your suggestion is most interesting, although I would go through Akkadian
in which hatchet is hassinu. It is certainly closer to Essene than Hasid
(the samekh- sadi interchange is well attested both within Hebrew and
inter-dialectically). Also note, that in the Old BAblyonian Nippur
recension of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh sees in his dream a hassinu, and this
term has obvious sexual overtones since it forecasts the coming (no pun
intended) of Enkidu, Gilgamesh's new companion (see A. Drafkorn-Kilmer's
article in Zikir Shumim Studies F. Kraus).
It's so nice when Assyriology and Qumranic studies come together- this
has been the greatest conicidence of Akkadian and Qumran Hebrew since
ohazey avot was shown to be equivalent of ahiz or sabit abbuti.
Avigdor Hurowitz
On Fri, 20 Sep 1996, Herb Basser wrote:
> oh jospehus tells us essenes had axes to grind and had paddles on them
> to dig holes to bury their waste-- and initiates wee given these axes
> wiht their degrees. in my pseudo-rabad i suggest essen=hetzen=hatchet
> and go on to show some exegesis of deut to explain where josephus's
> notice is based.
>
> hbasser
>