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Re: Essenes, again.



>Dear Russell,
>>when would
>>you date the incident when Manaemus the Essene predicted Herod the Great
>>would be king?  This took place when Herod was a "boy" (Ant. 15.373).
>Sorry to answer a question with a question, but when do you think the news
>that Sargon of Akkad was fished out of the river as a baby hit the press? or
>that Tuthmosis III was told by Amun that he would become pharaoh? I didn't
>think the Menahem story was one that anyone would want to take seriously.
>Herod needed legitimacy when he became king, not before.

While the story may not be 100% true, it indicates that the Essenes date from 
that time (just as this story gives us a date for Sargon).

>If the non-biblical dss were written starting from the time of Onias III's
>exile, would you want to say that the Essenes were around at that time? (The
>Essene hypothesis does require that they were around at the start of such
>writings!)

If you mean non-biblical. i.e sectarian, then they have to be from the period 
the Essenes existed, however the non-sectarian works can be from any time. 

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