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Re: orion Knowlege of DSS outside Qumran in

On Fri, 25 Jul 1997 09:16:33 +0300, yirmyahu@netzarim.co.il writes:
>
>As a point of information mentioned before, the Romans didn't rename the
>area known as Yehudah (Judea) to become 'Palestine' until 135 CE.  The
>single mention (perhaps two) of 'Palestine' before that referred to areas of
>'Azah (Gaza) and/or part of Levanon or Syria; *not* Yehudah.  It's
>anachronistic, illogical and oxymoronic to refer to "Palestine in the 1st
>century."

     Ken, I believe, is new to the list, BTW.  But you might have mentioned
     it was the Emperor Hadrian who ordered the change after he had rebuilt
     Jerusalem and named it Aelia Capitolina as a final slash of the lash
     to humiliate the Jews.  The ancient name derived from the Peleset who
     appeared with the invasion of the Sea Peoples.  Hadrian, an ardent
     Hellenophile, knew of this occupation and knew it would vex the Jews,
     but I have been unable to find the source of his knowledge.  

     To begin looking, I remembered my late near neighbor at Bar Harbour,
     Marguerite Yourcenar, pulled down her book, Memoirs of Hadrian and
     discovered though there were personal instances recorded of Hadrian's
     visit to his subdued territory but I found nearly endless details
     about the death of his favorite Antinoos drowning himself in the Nile
     and the elaborate city he built for the temple serving the cult of
     Antinoos and the Eleusian form of the cult yet we have next to nothing
     about the detail of activities at Qumran or the next century to the
     first Roman destruction of the Temple.  (Ms Yourcenar provided copious 
     data in her book of the sources behind Hadrian's time at Antioch and
     again the campaign against Bar Kohkba including the record of his
     cardiovascular accident that began his decline.)

     Hadrian ordered Jerusalem rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina (130 CE), after
     a diplomatically profitable winter of conferencing with the rulers of
     "Asia" before he set out for Egypt, lavishly rebuilding Pompey's tomb
     at Pelusium, and taking his fateful Nile excursion.  He had returned
     via Syria to Europe but hastily returned to Palestine (as the Britan-
     nica calls it) in the spring of 133 CE to deal with the revolt.  He
     dealt with it personally until his health failed, leaving the end of
     the task to Severus.  I believe Hadrian's proscription of the Jews
     allowed Christians free access to Aelia Capitolina, putting Imperial
     notice on the division that plagues us even today.  

     The use of the term Philistia or its Greek form Palestina for the
     whole area of the purported Ancient Kingdom of Israel of the time of
     Solomon began in the Byzantine Era, likely under Justinian whose
     rebuilding work defines the city even today.  Philistia was from Sea
     Peoples' times, the lush plain below the hills along the shore between
     Joppa and Gaza.

     I thought Hadrian ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Israel and
     Judea but the prohibition was from entering Jerusalem.  However, it
     appears he prohibited practice of any Jewish rituals anywhere in the
     empire.  On the way to running down this exposition, I discovered that
     the Temple was destroyed in spite of Titus' express order that it not
     be.   That detail explained the moderate treatment afforded the land
     for the next fifty years or so.  Hadrian's extirpation came later for
     and for a larger reason.

     To repeat in another way, it is sad that the detail this list would
     like to have about many things of interest are not at hand when the
     most intimate details of the lives of others are so abundant.  Do many
     really care how many ranks of priests served in Antinoos' temple?

>Yirmiyahu Ben-David

Tom Simms