[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: orion Essenes = 'osey hatorah?

Dear Stephen Goranson,
     Your article and previous postings did not make it clear that you
considered "doers of the law" to be the complete Essene self-designation.  I
therefore took your recent reference to the Essenes as 'osey hatorah to be a
development in your thinking on the subject.  That said, your discussion of
"long and short forms of (self-)designation" seems entirely reasonable, and I
can accept that 'osey could theoretically be a short form of 'osey hatorah.
Thank you for the clarification.  
    (Whether a credible case can be made from Epiphanius and Philo that the
term Essene derives from 'osey is of course a different matter.)
    
Best wishes,
Russell Gmirkin    


> 	Your post is not very clear, other than as expression of
>  disapproval. I do not see "shift" and "nonsensically" where you do. Since I
>  have posted on this at length, with bibliography and many Qumran and other
>  citations, I'll be brief here. You ignore Philo on osios, and the bios
>  praktikos, etc., among other relevant sources; Epiphanius includes some
>  valuable information.
>  	 As to long and short forms of  (self-)designation, perhaps it
>  would be useful to consider some analogies. If Pharisees were "specifiers,"
>  what they specified (halakha), is, as it were, unspecified, at least
>  explictly--understood. Same for Pharisees as "separatists"--separate from
>  something, surely. Though it may be a folk etymology, Samaritans considered
>  themselves the true keepers of torah: keepers, with torah sometimes
>  unstated. Mandaean Nasoraya were observant of something, certainly.
>  Karaites were readers/reciters of something, mikra. Gnostics, knowers of
>  something. Kabbalists, tradents, of something. Long and short forms are
>  indeed known. The etymology of Essenes from 'asah has parallels. It also
>  helps explain why the self-designation was not accepted in some quarters
>  (ancient and modern). (Essenes as Hasidim is a medieval misunderstanding,
>  finally fading.)
>  
For private reply, e-mail to RGmyrken@aol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to majordomo@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il with
the message: "unsubscribe Orion." For more information on the Orion Center
or for Orion archives, visit our web site http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.