Re: orion Newsday Hirschfeld

[dwashbur@nyx.net]

> Newsday Tues. 24 Feb has an article from Ein Gedi.
> http://www.newsday.com/news/nsectue.htm
> 
A fairly good article, thanks for passing it along, Stephen.  I did 
find this quote from Murphy-O'Connor quite revealing:

"Nothing that Hirschfeld found really fits with the scrolls. They
speak of bigger numbers [of Essenes], and he's found 15 or 16 holes 
in the ground..."

Excuse me for noticing, but this comment sort of misses the point, 
doesn't it?  Part of Hirschfeld's contention is that the Essenes 
didn't write the scrolls, and hence the scrolls shouldn't be used to 
interpret the site (or Qumran, for that matter).  If one begins with 
this type of assumption about a scrolls-Essenes connection, and 
begins by assuming that any Essene settlement found will correspond 
to descriptions of the group in the scrolls, then of course the 
En-Gedi site comes up short.  But that's the whole question.  If we 
begin by assuming what we're setting out to prove, and use that 
assumption to write off potentially contrary evidence, we don't get 
very far with discovery and learning.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Now I have $2736.15.  Every time I count my $500,
I get a different amount."

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