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orion-list On one aspect of Doudna's new essay
Hello orion list,
I have read Greg Doudna's new essay on the
orion web site. This note is not a review of the entire
essay (I wish FMC were on list to join the conversation
with Rochelle and Greg!). Rather, this note is intended to
point out, again, that *one* of the arguments used by Greg
Doudna is wrong, when applied to Qumran. He asserts, for his
"one-generation" scroll production proposal, that artifacts
ordinarily are most plentiful from the time just
before the destruction of a site. He adds that libraries
have most books from recent years. This argument---or its
two variants--is mistaken when applied, as he attemps to
apply it, to Qumran.
Qumran was not destroyed in circa 63 BC. Rather,
Qumran was destroyed in circa 68 AD--that is the only time
which ended the habitation there of Second Temple
period Jewish inhabitants. Furthermore, we do not know what
scrolls--and of what ages-- may have been taken away from
Qumran by Essenes and others before the Romans came (or
after the Romans left, for that matter).
Also, I have worked in many libraries. I own a very
small library. The plain fact is that not all libraries
have the most books from the last year.
So, whatever one makes of Greg Doudna's essay
vis-a-vis paleography dating, his argument based on
archaeology is mistaken.
stephen goranson
goranson@duke.edu
For private reply, e-mail to stephen goranson <goranson@duke.edu>
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