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Re: orion sects and sectarians
Dear Ian
> First what do you have in mind for me to read in Isaiah? (And stop grinning.)
What I mean is, that the purported sectarian self-understanding of
the so-called sectarian writings from Qumran is so close to an equal
(sectartian) self-understanding evinced in material we do not designate
as sectarian, but read as examples of litterature from main-stream 1
c. Judaism.
> 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.
I discussed this with Greg some time ago, and as a matter of fact, I
quite agree, there seems to be no internal reasons in the MMT-text
that gives reason to the supposition that it is a sectarian text. It
is all a question of which glasses one puts on when one starts
reading. In the case of MMT, the glasses "there is a seperate
Qumran-sect" has become firmly established on peoples noses, but they
are not the only glasses one could read this text with.
So, my reason for asking you (and anyone else) to read Isaiah again
is that we, in Isaiah (and in quite a lot of the "non-sectarian"
texts from the Qumran finds), can find quite a good number (if not
all) of the same elements that makes us designate the "sectarian
texts" sectarian.
Yours
Tilde
Tilde Binger
University of Copenhagen
Dptm.of Biblical Studies
Kcbmagergade 44-46
DK-1150 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Phone +45 35 32 36 58
Fax +45 35 32 36 52
e-mail tb@teol.ku.dk