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Re: Satan in the DSS
At 08:28 AM 9/26/96 -0400, you wrote:
>counting usages is silly--
Why?
> we dont know how prevalent anything was in
>a society by counting--
We do know, though, that some things were more important and thus discussed
more by the silly method of counting (or are statistical analyses also invalid?)
> that some words occur only once in the bible
>does not mean they were rare in usage-- to find something once is to
>have found it and established its existence. chanukah is mentioned in
>passsing in the mishnah, does that mean it hardly existed.
No, but it means it DID NOT exist in the Biblical period. Which means it is
anachronistic to speak of things the people of an earlier period did not
speak of.
>the bible
>is rarely mentioned in the mishna-- does that mean it wasnt important,
>statistics should not be used with texts to find out what was a
>prevalent belief.
>
So, we should discount the fact that Esther has not been found among the
Scrolls?
>herb
>
Jim
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West
Professor of Biblical Languages, CCBI
Adjunct Professor of Bible, Quartz Hill School of Theology