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orion search thanks; "near" Ein Gedi?



	Thanks to Avital for adding a search engine to the archives. It's a
good help (especially since I recently lost a bunch of saved files).
	In the Hippolytus discussion, a subject of interest, Asia Lerner
made an incidental remark: "...Pliny's placing the Essenes specifically
near Ein Gedi..." Actually, when Pliny's source wrote "infra"--however one
chooses to translate that--it does not convey specifically *how near or
far* infra. This may be worth noting, since, if one accepted "near," it
would seem to favor the position suggested by, for instance, Yizhar
Hirschfeld. But, for diverse reasons discussed at length already (and in
bibliography I'm now gathering), that suggestion is quite improbable.
Furthermore, when the text resumes its survey from Jericho to the Essene
settlement to Ein Gedi--downstrean, south, or further along, rather than
downhill--it indicates that Masada is next, and Masada is surely not
downhill from Ein Gedi. Nor is Masada, like Qumran, especially near to Ein
Gedi.
best wishes,
Stephen Goranson
goranson@duke.edu