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Re: orion Hasidim, Sadducees, Essenes & Qumran

RGmyrken@aol.com wrote:

>      Now that Ian is off-list and Greg Doudna has retreated from a 63
> BCE
> deposit of the scrolls, I appear to be the sole Orion defender of this
> idea:
>  which, however, I am forced to modify in light of the C14 and
> archaeological
> data.
>     (1) I recently argued at the Jerusalem Congress that several major
> texts
> including 1QM, CD, 1QS, 1QSa were originally composed during the
> Hasidim/Maccabean revolt.  This Hasidim literature was probably used
> in later
> times by both Sadducees and Essenes who claimed the Hasidim as
> spiritual
> ancestors.
>     (2) Yizhar Hirschfeld demonstrated at the Congress that layout of
> Qumran
> strongly resembles numerous other fortified manors, with a fortified
> tower,
> rectangular living quarters, and adjacent industrial complex.  So in
> my model
> I am compelled to downgrade Qumran from a fortress to a cleruchy, a
> quasi-military colony loosely connected to the fortress system, with
> royal
> land awarded the aristocratic commanders whose relatives/subordinates
> served
> as soldiers when required, especially in times of crisis, and
> otherwise
> farmed, conducted business, etc.
>     (3) The Hymn to King Jonathan and other Sadducean texts at Qumram
> indicate the fortified estate was occupied by Sadducean aristocratic
> partisans of King Jonathan (Jannaeus) from 76-63 BCE, as per Jos.,
> Ant.
> 13.410-417.
>     (4) But under Herod, royal and private estates were seized from
> his
> opponents (e.g. Sadducees) and awarded to his friends (e.g. Essenes).
> I
> therefore now propose that an Essene occupation of Qumran began under
> Herod,
> and admit the possibility of later Essene documents after 63 BCE, i.e.
> late
> copies of revered Hasidim texts.

    Makes sense to me.    Wouldn't this pose that a putative Essene
occupation of the site tookplace after 37 BCE?  Given time for Herod to
entrench himself in the
power of the throne, his confiscation of former Sadducean property and
subsequent gifting to the Essenes 35ish or so?  I take it this model
assumes
the library of the Sadducees was left there and then given to the
Essenes...
but the sectarian texts predate Herod.  This assumes that the Essenes
brought
in their texts and added them to the "left behind" Sadducee library.

    I think the several source hypothesis for the texts is viable but
where
were they comingled?  At Qumran or on deposit in the caves?

>     This model now accomodates both C14 data and Pliny's account on
> the
> Essenes below Jericho.

    I like it but am still not 100% convinced on the AMS dating accuracy
fororganics a mere 2,000 years old, well within *one* half-life of the
isotope.

Jack Kilmon
jpman@accesscomm.net