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Re: One Thousand Scribes

Greg Doudna wrote:
> 

> In my dreams I see one day a pattern-recognition program
> for Qumran palaeography. 

>  If police labs can
> identify fingerprints, why cannot the same pattern-matching
> technology be used for Qumran palaeography?  

	Since handwriting is not as complex in multiplicity of
patterns as fingerprints, why not just a team of qualified
forensic handwriting analysts?

>  What is in evidence is the remains of a
> collection, a library, in which texts were
> purchased or obtained from other sources.  Someone collected
> copies of many things.  The contents of this collection may
> well yield much information about the interests of the owner(s)
> of this library.  But the picture I see is a collection over
> a period of time from many sources,

	If the Qumran site was not a "residence" but instead a
"headquarters" or place to go for purification, every Essene in
the country could have been required to go there.  It may very
well have been a transient Essene "motel."  If one was required
to stay a few days, or longer, a library would be nice.  On the
other hand, scripture reading may have been part of a purification
ritual.  If so, Essenes using the site could have donated books
regularly over decades for the use by their visiting brothers.

	This could easily account for the multiplicity of scribal
hands and place the library at the site.

> and then a one-time
> stash of this library in the caves at Qumran as a hiding.

	If the Qumran site WAS a place to visit for ritual
reading and purification, the "shelf life" of parchment would
make the use of genizoth, over the years, a near certainty.
Jerusalem and its vicinity probably had more holy writ than
any other city.  Where are the genizoth?

> There is no reason at all to locate this library at Qumran
> _prior_ to the deposition of the texts in the caves.  This is
> one of those logical leaps that simply does not logically
> follow.

	Unless the above scenario is possible. Wouldn't the genizoth already in
use be the likely places to stache the "working" library?

> 
> One of the Qumran texts in the caves explicitly tells of a
> hiding of resources from Jerusalem and gives a first-person
> reference which may help identify who was behind the whole thing.
> I refer to 3Q15 3.9 and the hiding of "my garments", which
> appears to point to a high priest from Jerusalem.

	Phanneus perhaps?

Jack Kilmon
jpman@accesscomm.net