[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: orion Jack's "as seems to be the case"

    [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
    [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
    [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]

Ian Hutchesson wrote:

> Writing to Yirmiyahu Ben-David you said:
>
> >Based on
> >the evidence, "IF the DSS people were Essenes" is a most logical
> statement.
>
> Yes, it is in itself a logical statement, but you complicate it in
> your
> original by adding "as seems to be the case" to your if. That is
> pretty
> unfounded.

    Regarless Pliny as his "tour guide" rather faulty or not, I can only
go onmy reading of the texts and what I understand about the three major
sects.
Like most, I think I know more about the Pharisees than the Sadducees
and
have a difficult time assigning a Sadducee origin to the texts.  If all
I knew
about the Essenes, sans Philo and Pliny, was from FJ, I would think them

Essene or by an "Essene-like" group.  In this regard, "seems to be" is
appropriate to myb own stance.  I am not as dogmatic in my historical
constructions as most and always invite challenges to change my mind.

> . When one has dealt
> with all the simple physical evidence (you mentioned for example the
> 800
> hands spread over 800 documents; and this physical evidence against
> the
> Essene hype is rather heavy), one might then look at the difficulties
> trying
> to fit the Essenes to the texts (oh, joy: temple alienated group
> talking as
> if in control of temple -- down to temple rosters).

    Obviously, the DSS people were ambivalent about the Temple but
"alienated"may be a bit strong.  They did, after all, send offerings to
the temple but did not
themselves take part in the sacrifices probably because of their
disagreement
on matters of purity and sacrifice.  This does not mean they did not
view the
temple as the center of worship for Jews.

> >That "as seems to be the case" is unjustifiable.

I think I'll stick to that qualifier until better evidence is
presented...it does leavethe door open for your paradigm.....which
is...???

Jack Kilmon
jpman@accesscomm.net

>
>