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orion hermetically sealed caves



[From James Harding, University of Sheffield]

Fred Cryer's point that we should not imagine that the Qumran caves 
were left untouched for the past 1900 years is true enough-but on the 
other hand,do we have concrete evidence that the 11 text caves were 
in fact visited between the fall of Qumran and the arrival of the Bedouin in 
1947? How reliable is the letter of Timotheus I? Which caves are 
in question there-the 11 text caves or others of which we are unaware? 
Whilst we should not fall into the trap of imagining the text caves 
were "hermetically sealed", we have to recognise that we can only 
work with the evidence we have and the texts that remain.

James Harding.