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Re: orion Orion Sadducees (MMT) et al, Part 1

Dale Cannon wrote:

> Some time back, I read an ad in Br or BAr -- a fellow wanted help in
> excavating a tell near Damascus, hinting that ithoused a Christian
> community.  I wrote to him asking him for information to back up his
> claim.  It was difficult to decipher.
>
> Considering Jeshua's mostly preaching in Galilee and Paul's travelling
>
> to Damascus -- and Jeshua's utilizing the Syriac (Eloi, Eloi, lama
> sabacthani  or something like that) I thought there might be substance
>
> in a "theory" that Jeshua was taught out of the Damascus area -- that
> another branch of Judaism, maybe similar to Pharisaic Judaism, arose
> in
> Syria, took hold in Galilee, which apparently was considered a
> "backwater" (nothing good comes out of Galilee), and developed into
> what
> became Christianity (I hope you follow me).
>   It seems that 1st C CE Judaism was such a mixed bag at the time --

    Indeed it was a mixed bag.  On the matter of Paul travelling to
Damascus,I must admit that has always been something of an enigma to
me.  How does
this "Pharisee of Pharisees" student of Gamaliel and "Hebrew of Hebrews"

wind up acting as an agent for the *Sadducee* high priest?  How can the
high priest in Jerusalem give Paul authority to arrest people in Syria?
Why
would the high priest be concerned about Netzarim in Syria at a time
when
matters in Judea were reaching a boiling point?

    Since "Damascus" also seems to be a code word for the Essene
community,
probably at Qumran (yes, I am aware of the debate on this), is it
possible that
Paul's Damascus was Qumran/Irhammelah?  If so, this would suggest that
the
Jesus people and the DSS people were pretty tight.


>   Actually I'm straying from DSS discussion myself -- yet I guess
> delving into the spectrum helps define better (through the haze of
> history) this very formative period.
>
>   I'm sorry for the tangent.
>

    Well, if we are discussing the "genre" of Judaism, represented by a
majorityof the DSS, from which Christianity either rose or found a
niche, it may be
tangential but certainly worth discussing

Jack Kilmon
jpman@accesscomm.net