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Re: orion HIPPOLYTUS: THE ESSENE TEXT
At 08:22 PM 9/8/98 -0400, you wrote:
>You asked if Hippolytus was copying from Josephus. Once you read the
>text, I think you will believe that Josephus and Hippolytus were writing
>from some PRIOR text.
This very same Hippolytus is a corner stone of Del Medico's "The Myth of
The Essenes". Del Medico's theory is that Hippolytus' text is the source
of
the Essene passages in Josephus, these passages being a late (3-4th
century) insertion, not written by Josephus originally.
On my part, it seems to me that there are few things in Hippolytus that
cannot be derived from one of the Big Three : Philo, Josephus and Pliny,
and the notion of an original source prior to Josephus and Hippolytus
seems
unnecessary. Hippolytus simply has a tendancy for embroidering on his
sources - this is as obvious in the passage on Sadduccees as it is in the
passage on the Essenes.
All best, Asia Lerner