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orion Into the Temple Courts
For those who might be interested, Donald Binder's page can be found at:
http://www.smu.edu/~dbinder/
On 03/29/98 Stephen Goranson asked "whether those who argue in favour [sic] of
considering Qumran as possibly having a synagogue (room- not a separate
building?) or study-house would take that possibility, if accepted, as
suggesting that writing and copying texts would be a likely activity at the
same site?" This is a fair question, although I really do not know whether
the production of scrolls is necessarily associated with a synagogue.
Assume for the sake of argument that the answer to SG's question is "yes". A
synagogue would suggest that writing and copying texts would be a likely
activity at the same site. Does that analysis apply to the claimed synagogue
at Jericho? Is it fair, for example, to speculate that Hasmoneans living in
and around a synagogue at Jericho (prior to Herod) (and a population center
much larger than Qumran) would have produced a large number of scrolls (with
many hands) and then have moved them to caves near Jericho and also to Qumran
where a sect that enjoyed the favor of Herod was living. Might the production
of scrolls at a Hasmonean synagogue near Jericho explain issues like "many
hands"? Herod, it seems, built a palace on the site of the Hasmonean's
synagogue after its destruction in 31 B.C.E. Were the Hasmonean's long gone
(chased out) befoe 31 B.C.E.? If not, why didn't they rebuild their
synagogue? If they were gone, where did they go?
Mark Dunn
Dunnlaw@aol.com