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Re: orion Diogenes and 4QpNah
Dear Mark Dunn,
I don't have all your answers, but some comments, since no one else
responded. First, it would help to note that your references are from War
book one. No, I don't think Diogenes was a common Jewish name. But then
Josephus (or his source) did not specify that Diogenes was a Jew. If you
meant to suggest, with the references to the cities, that he would be an
Essene, I don't think those two statements juxtaposed show that. So *if*
the story actually happened, he may have been a non-Jewish advisor to
Alexander Jannaeus. If one takes 4QpNah as referring to the rule of
Alexander--a view which is lately argued (or declared) against in many
orion posts though argued for in many peer-reviewed publications--there may
be a complaint about non-Jewish advisors. And *if* Diogenes was a Jew, and
*if* he were associated with one of the known groups (not all Jews were), I
suggest the most probable group-association would be with the Sadducees.
To attempt to tie up a few loose ends on 4QpNah. I have given some
of the arguments, with references and bibliography, in many posts on orion
(and ioudaios, where, I think, Martin Jaffee and I had a good exchange). I
mean arguments that 4QpNah refers, inter alia, to Alexander Jannaeus (as a
lion), and to some Pharisees, who were crucified. Though I added a little,
these arguments may be found in Maurya Horgan's good book Pesharim (1979)
and in Larry Schiffman's more recent study of 4QpNah in the Nahum Sarna
Festschrift (Sheffield). I assumed that orion readers would be familiar
with arguments in several publications since about 1960. I didn't write
them all out each time, just to save time. These claims are falsifiable.
Though Thomas Thompson often writes clearly, my claims about this text are
not "theology" (if they were, what's theological about them?), but
historical. If Philip Davies thinks I was rude, though I am not sure why, I
apologize. Philip, I allow for the possibility that not all religious
groups have only one name; I was not trying to be unclear. I wrote that the
group Josephus called Pharisees was continuous with the group called in
4QpNah, amongst other things, Ephraim. I allow that I am not sure whether
the name Pharisaioi was current in early first century BCE, and if so, used
by whom. I think Sigrid Peterson may not have read all my posts because
some of what she wrote I had already written, too (and I may have been
wrong about "pun," though my dictionary allows it as a play on different
words). To Russell Gimirkin, whose post was the most substantial, and in
some sense only, response to the invitation for a different historical
setting for 4QpNah, though I was not persuaded, my thanks.
Sincerely,
Stephen Goranson