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Re: orion sects and sectarians
Dear Tilde,
First what do you have in mind for me to read in Isaiah? (And stop grinning.)
Second, if Greg Doudna is still in contact with the world you should ask for
his rehash of MMT, which is basically a reading from above given by the
temple elite regarding what proper functioning in the temple is to be. If
you'd like to call such an elite a sect, I don't think the word has much
meaning left in it.
>Just to stick my neck out, straight into the hornet's nest (nice
>mixed metaphor).
>If we speak of a sectarian self-understanding, there is plenty of
>evidence of that in the texts found at Qumran.
>
>We have all the hall-marks of a sectarian self-understanding in
>varios works found at the site.
>"Us" against the rest of the world. "We" being the only one/s
>who have understood God correctly etc. etc. etc.
>
>So, yes, I would tend to agree with whoever designates the ones that
>deposited the texts at Qumran as a "sect".
>Whether we have more than one sect evident in the texts is another
>matter.
Incidentally, it might be worth considering the possibility that the texts
were written over a period of say 150 years and contexts change. I'm pretty
sure that the dss are not a synchronic view of Judaism. Then again there
might be more input among the dss other than from the temple. One still has
to explain the differences in language and dialect.
>
>You should read your Isaiah again Ian.
>(I am grinning wickedly here)
>
>Tilde
Yours,
Ian