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orion re: Aramaic and DSS
Just to throw a wrnech in the works- I pose a question.
John Collins points out in his book "Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Era"
that Greek replaced Aramaic as the ligua franca of Palestine during the
hellenistic age. If the scrolls were produced in that period and following,
and if Collins is right, then why so few (relatively speaking) Greek documents?
Is it possible that documents were written and copied in Hebrew and Aramaic
precisely because the common folk could not read them or understand them if
they heard them read (much as Latin was the language of debate in the middle
ages because the common folk could not read it and thus would not be "harmed
in faith" by scholarly debates)?
In other words, is it possible that the scrolls were written in a language
desgned to be known only by initiates?
Jim
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West
Adjunct Professor of Bible
Quartz Hill School of Theology
jwest@highland.net