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Re: Calendar, MMT
>Various other fragments of MMT continue by saying that this (priestly)
>wickedness and the resulting curses on Israel were symptomatic of the end of
>days (which MMT equates with the present) and the "evil scheming and the
>counsel of Belial" in the end times. This apocalyptic outlook seems to me
>appropriate to the Maccabean Crisis and thereafter, not the tranquil period
>before 175 BCE. (The severe accusations of moral improprieties by the
>priests also _seem_ to echo the temple under Menelaus, but given the
>possibility of polemical exaggerations of one's enemies' faults, I won't
>press this point.)
>CD appears to indicate that the era of the dominion of Belial began with the
>death of the Teacher of Righteousness. If & since MMT appears to view the
>present as the time when Belial and the forces of wickedness were dominant,
>this would date MMT after CD. A major reason why I date MMT late is that it
>appears to inherit its Belial language from CD and related documents.
I think this logic is a bit lacking. In CD 5.18-19 we see that Belial was
active even in the time of Moses. I think that the forces of Belial were
always considered active, so that we cannot assign a time period based on that
alone. BTW Belial seems to be more involved in 'religious' rather then
'secular' battles, in which case there could have been a time of political
quiet. The pre-Maccabean period could also fit, as the religious problems did
not come overnight. They seemed to build up. (That does not mean I support an
early dating, just that the evidence does not support this line of argument.)
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| \/ / \/ / | Moshe Shulman |
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