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Re: orion re: Aramaic and DSS
On Wed, 26 Nov 1997 15:12:05 -0500, jwest@Highland.Net writes:
>
>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.
Splendid, intriguing, but WHAT is his evidence. Can you give an epitome
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)?
That fits the "Secrecy" view Phil set forth just now.
>In other words, is it possible that the scrolls were written in a language
>desgned to be known only by initiates?
This was the hidden reason for centuries in the Roman Church, I suggest
it is so in the Academic Community, one example being the difficulty of
springing the Scrolls from the hands of an inside group and the
liklihood "obscuranticism" will hide them again.
Frankly, this makes as much sense now as it might have two thousand
years ago.
>Jim
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Jim West
>Adjunct Professor of Bible
>Quartz Hill School of Theology
>
>jwest@highland.net
>
L8R
Tom Simms
SAINT JOHN, N. B.