[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Calendar, MMT
On Mon, 25 Nov 1996, Greg Doudna wrote:
> Voluntary separation of priests from non-priestly people
> seems a well-attested issue. Didn't you see David Suter's
> post with the Philo quote on priestly intermarriage
> issues (which seems to be the issue in the immediate
> context of the MMT "separation" phrase, so far as the
> broken words can be read [at least the editors of MMT
> so interpreted the meaning of the surrounding lines])?
> Suter also referred to his article in the _Hebrew Union
> College Annual_ (50 [1979]:115-135) which expands on these
> themes much more.
Thanks for the plug, Greg. I would however have you note that in the
post you are referring to my comment is that both kinds of separation may
be contemplated (separation from the people for purity's sake and
separation within the priesthood over the interpretation of purity
regulations).
In response to Ian in a subsequent post (who has obviously
read the HUCA article), the HUCA article argues that the myth of the
fallen angels in the Book of the Watchers is a sectarian critique of
establishment practices, on the other hand, sectarian does not
necessarily imply non-priestly, as I argued subsequently in a paper
entitled "The Priesthood and Apocalyptic" read at a national SBL
meeting. My guess is that the intellectuals of that society are also
likely to be priests, and the factions that show up in the literature are
possibly representative of different segments within the
priesthood--the power elite and the cultural elite (who write the myths
that legitimate the exercise of power) for example. I'm resorting the
material out at present and don't want to make any final commitments at
the moment, but my tendency up until now has been to see the
ultraconservatives as reflected in the Book of the Watchers, CD, and for
that matter MMT as coming from the cultural elite (the ones who tell the
myths) and criticizing the power elite. At some point I think that there
is a parting of the ways, but at present I don't think that has happened
yet in the Book of the Watchers, which I would date to the third century BCE.
To Moshe, in a yet subsequent post, if one follows the use of zenuth in
places like CD and the Testament of Levi (I made this argument originally
on the basis of the Greek version of the latter and need to revisit it),
the issue is not visiting prostitutes but marrying the wrong women
according to someone's interpretation of the Levitical marriage
rules--note the HUCA article mentioned above. The example in CD is
marriage with a niece, while so far I think the Q and S are correct in
seeing MMT as opposed to marriages between priests and Israelites.
David Suter
Saint Martin's College