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Re: Dss related questions (copper scroll)



RGmyrken@aol.com wrote
>David Kaufman wrote
>
>> Russell Gmyrken wrote:
>>  The reference to the "queen's residence" near Jericho at 6.11 surely
>carries
>>  chronological significance.  This may refer to a royal residence of a
>>  Herodian or Hasmonean queen [see Bargil Pixner's article, Unravelling the
>>  Copper Scroll, 
>>  RevQ 11 p. 349] or (a less likely long shot) one of the Ptolemaic
>Cleopatra's
>>  who occasionally controlled portions of Palestine.
>>  ********
>>  [Kaufman responds:]
>>  Your right, it may refer to the residence of a Queen. The Cleopatra who
>was a
>>  buddy of Onias IV would be a possibility. The Ptolemies probably remained
>in
>>  control of, or at least in influence over, portions of the East until well
>>  after the Hasmoneans took power. The possibility that they might have had
>>  property there is not unreasonable. 
>
>I don't understand on what historical basis you believe the Ptolemies
>remained in control of and maintained property in portions of Palestine into
>the Hasmonean period.  The was a war between Antiochus the Great and the
>Ptolemies' Greek-mercenary general Scopas that decided this whole issue in
>200 BCE.  The Ptolemies lost and were evicted from Palestine.  It really
>wasn't until Herodian times (Anthony and Cleopatra) that a Ptolemaic queen
>actually controlled portions of Palestine (hence my including this Cleopatra
>as a marginally possible candidate for the "queen's residence" near Jericho).

Josephus' Antiquites, somewhere in books 15 or 16, I think, says that Herod 
the "Great" had a palace near Jericho.  In fact, he brought his whole family 
there, including his brother-in-law who had been High Priest for a year and 
was very popular with the people.  He arranged to have his brother-in-law, 
who was 18 at the time according to Josephus, drown in an "accident".  Could 
this palace be the one you are refering to?

Gretchen A. Shapiro Haas
CCJS