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Re: orion Into the Temple Courts

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The Masada synagogue, a place where scrolls were discovered, provides a
suggestive parallel.  

Steven Fine
Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literature and History
Baltimore Hebrew University
5800 Park Heights Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21215 
410-578-6908; Fax: 410-578-6940

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> From: Dunnlaw <Dunnlaw@aol.com>
> To: orion@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il
> Subject: orion Into the Temple Courts
> Date: Sunday, March 15, 1998 10:24 PM
> 
> The Reverend Donald D. Binder, PhD has post to the internet an abstract,
> acknowledgement, bibliography and introduction to a work he has produced
> titled: "Into the Temple Courts."  He was kind enough to send me Chapter
7 of
> his work entitled: "Sectarian Synagogues."  I was particularly interested
in
> this Chapter, because I have been wondering about the general notion that
the
> area along the western shore of the Dead Sea on a line between Jericho
and En
> Gedi was the home base of the Essene sect with Qumran serving as a
central
> synagogue for ritual bathing, prayer, and the study and production of
sacred
> texts.
> 
> Dr. Binder discusses a passage from Philo where Philo use the term
synagoge in
> connection with the Essenes:  "In these [the laws of their fathers] they
are
> instructed at all other times, but particularly on the seventh day.  For
that
> day has been set apart to be kept holy and on it they abstain from all
other
> work and proceed to sacred spots which they call synagogai.  There,
arranged
> in rows according to their ages, the younger below the elder, they sit
> decorously as befits the occasion with attentive ears.  Then one takes
the
> book and reads aloud and another of especial proficiency comes forward
and
> expounds what is not understood." (Prob. 80-83).
> 
> Is there any excavated structure at Qumran that fits the description or
an
> area where people could sit arranged in rows, the younger below the
elder?
> Dr. Binder also notes that in the War Scroll the phrase "house of
meeting"
> appears (1QM 3.3-4) and another possible reference to a synagogue
building is
> found in the Damascus Document (CD 11.22-23).  
> 
> Mark Dunn