[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: orion "damascus"

On Fri, 2 Jan 1998 22:14:01 -0800 (PST), dsuter@catadon.stmartin.edu writes:
>
>On Fri, 2 Jan 1998, Tom Simms wrote:
>
>>    According to the account (Acts), if Paul went to syrian Damascus, well
>>    beyond Mount Hermon, he would be in another Governor's territory.  A High
>>    Priest's warrant in Syria would be of no more use than in Alexandria.  (I
>>    don't need to give a lecture on the competing ambitions of fellow gover-
>>    nors.)  Qumran was in Judea.  The warrants would work in Judea, honor or
>>    not.  To refuse was to invite Roman troops to become instant family guests.
>
>It seems to me that it is speculative enough to identify Qumran as 
>Damascus on the basis of CD, but then gratuously to introduce that 
>identification into Acts is a bit much.  A close reading of CD makes it 
>quite difficult to support the identification of Damascus and Qumran, 
>since in going to the land of Damascus the community implied by CD is 
>leaving Judah (which to me would seem to rule out Qumran) and seeking 
>refuge in the north, in the land of Damascus (see CD vi.5,19; 
>vii.13-14,19).  In the 3rd or 2nd centuries BCE, the advantage of the 
>north is that it is beyond the authority of Jerusalem, making it a 
>meaningful place for a band of dissenters to flee, as CD seems to 
>presuppose.  Qumran doesn't make nearly as much sense in that regard.  If 
>CD means "Judah" literally, and there is no hint in the text that it does 
>not, then the burden of proof rests on assigning a figurative meaning to 
>"Damascus."  
>
>For that matter, as long as you're looking at a Bible Atlas, take a 
>closer look, and I think that you'll notice that Damascus is more or less 
>immediately on the other side of Mount Hermon from Banias (Caesarea 
>Philippi) and Dan (unless your atlas is one of those that for some 
>unknown reason, seem to be rather vague on the details of Mount Hermon).
>
>David W. Suter
>Saint Martin's College
>Lacey, WA 98503
>dsuter@catadon.stmartin.edu
>

   140 airmiles from Jerusalem - no small trip by foot.

   It`s as far beyond Dan as Dan is from Hazor and without doubt from
   a Roman world point of view, a very different Jurisdiction.  

   the Pharisee of Pharisees label may be Paul's but not the Saduccees.

Tom