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orion on P. Davies on ostracon 1

	If Prof. Davies is suggesting that a draft document cannot have
been written at Qumran, that is surely and obviously mistaken.  Whether the
word "archives" was an ideal word choice in the article, one can question,
but the word has a broad range, and this appears not crucial. Further, this
text *may* have been written,  for example, by Honi himself.
	Philip belittled my interest in "favourite" inkwells. Is this an
example of what he called for on orion last month: humility and tolerance?
One could try to follow the sometimes-impressive rhetorical turns from PD,
but I suspect that to do so would unnecessarily give our moderator more
work.
	PD didn't actually propose a specific alternate new reading. New
proposals surely should get due consideration. When I wrote that Cross and
Eshel might reasonably be called upon to supply further references to
N-shaped hets, I was, perhaps, engaging in "British understatement." (I'm
not really British, though I was born in Surrey. Someone should keep the
tradition going.) The IEJ wording "no serious objection," I agree, was not
ideal (though they indeed have a right to that view), yet, with further
documentation of these hets, I would not be at all surprised that the issue
will become moot.  I speak only of those open to considering an Essene
connection, not those with anything-but-Essene loyalties. An N-shaped het
is not a new thing, though some react as if it were.
	As close as PD came to a new reading proposal was to write that,
instead of "to the yahad" any name could fit.  Let's call that "to (person
or group) X."  But, if X were the recipient (and X surely doesn't read
'El'azar), why shouldn't Davies, to be consistent, argue against this new
reading, just as he argued that a gift or conveyance cannot go both to
'El'azar and to the yahad (or or X)? In fact,  the possibility that Elazar
could receive on behalf of the Essene yahad is a solution not far to seek.
Regards,
Stephen Goranson     goranson@duke.edu