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orion gens aeterna; Pliny scholarship
Joseph Baumgarten compared Pliny's "Ita per saeculorum
milia--incredible dictu--*gens aeterna* est, in qua nemo nascitur"
[*italics* JB] to blessings on men and women in 4Q502, "in the midst of an
eternal people" btwk im 'wlmy[m (JJS 34, 1983 p.134). Incidentally,
abdicating sexual relations (omni venere abdicata) does not necessarily
mean banishing women, or men, from one's sight.
Joseph Amusin made a similar comparison between "...saeculorum
milia...gens aeterna..." and CD 7.6; 9.1-2; 20.21-22, borrowing from Deut.
7.9, le eleph dor (LXX eis chilias geneas). (Qumran Chronicle 2.2, 1993,
116). Amusin also observed (113-4) that the geographic localization of
Essenes by Pliny in the Qumran area "has recently been tackled by several
special investigations [note 3] and can now be considered resolved."
Klaus Sallmann, author of Die Geographie des Altern Plinius
(Berlin, 1971), reviewed Pliny research in "Plinius der Altere 1938-1970,"
Lustrum 18 (1975) 5-299. On p. 134-141, he reviews several studies on Pliny
on Judaea, including two by Christoph Burchard (RB 69, 1962, 533-69; 74,
1967, 392-407) and Menachem Stern, The Description of Palestine by Pliny
the Elder and the Administrative Division of Judaea at the End of the
Second Temple Period" (in Hebrew) Tarbiz 37 (1967-68) 215-229.
Stephen Goranson goranson@duke.ed