[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
orion four questions
1) DeVaux found several ostraca in his Qumran excavations, and mentioned
some of them in publications, but did not publish most of them. Apparently
they are now assigned to E. Puech for the series edited by J.-B. Humbert.
They appear in the Brill microfiche set, but are mostly illegible, at least
with the viewer I used. I wonder if they (in addition to the text-backing
mentioned by R. Kraft) would be good candidates for one of the image-
enhancing techniques, which, after all, helped with those assigned to
E. Eshel. Does anyone know more about the contents of the texts of
deVaux' unpublished or unedited ostraca?
2) In the Milik Festschrift, Rev. Qum. (1996?) E. Puech presents one of his
texts (i.e. from the old Starcky Qumran lot) with a reading of "Jonathan."
My first impression is that that reading is plausible, but that there is
no compelling reason to consider it a reference to Jonathan I rather than
Alexander Jannaeus, also known as Jonathan. Comments?
3) Speculation: As noted previously, J. Magness (DSD 2) makes a good case that
Qumran period Ib ended shortly after--i.e., one to several years after--
9/8 BCE. And Herod evidently died in the winter of 4/3 BCE. So one possible
reason for the fire at Qumran is as a consequence of the disturbances
following the death of Herod the Great. But, even given the literary goals
of the book, is it possible that the Gospel of Matthew 2 records something
related to history in the slaughter of the innocents, as part of disturbances
before the death of Herod, which perhaps also could have reached Qumran?
4) Speculation: Rightly or wrongly, Josephus' Menahem the Essene, it has
been suggested, may be identical with a former associate of Hillel,
mentioned in the Mishnah. Judah the Essene is sometimes linked with
bKidd. 66a and with the teacher of righteousness. Does anyone know a
bibliographic reference in which Simon the Essene of Josephus was,
speculatively, linked with Like 2? Luke is not noted for chronological
accuracy, and of course the name is exceedingly common, but there are
similarities.
Thanks,
Stephen Goranson goransons@uncwil.edu UNC-Wilmington