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orion-list Cave 4 linen and deposit date
To the list: my last post was sent out inadvertantly with the
wrong draft of the final paragraph. The final paragraph should
have read instead:
"The key issue in the end may be whether the Qumran cave
deposits are best understood as a single event, or whether
there were multiple cave deposit events over decades or even
centuries. While certainty may be unattainable, the available
comparative evidence seems to weigh in favor of a single hiding
event at one date. The Copper Scroll with its hidings of wealth
in multiple places seems a very relevant comparative parallel--
single-event, isolated areas, multiple hiding spots, Dead Sea
region . . . just like the Qumran texts in principle except that the
one is gold and silver; the other religious manuscripts (but both
valuable enough to motivate movement of materials to the
wilderness and a hiding operation). Compare also the Nag
Hammadi texts hiding. Although other reasons are often
suggested to account for the Qumran cave deposits, are there
any comparative parallels in support of the other proposals?
Or are the alternative proposals (e.g. the caves as local lending
libraries, proto-genizahs, warehouses, etc.) ad hoc, unique,
without known comparative parallels? The Qumran cave
deposits indeed show evidence of disturbed contexts, some
caves with only jar fragments and no texts (indicating secondary
intrusions and removals of texts within the past 2000 years).
But although texts were certainly taken out of some caves,
there seems neither evidence nor reason to suppose that
anyone subsequently intentionally or by accident deposited
additional literary texts into the caves around Qumran. If the
texts in the caves are the remains of a hiding operation in a
time of crisis--an explanation which does seem supported
in ancient comparative parallels (with the religious texts regarded
as valuables worth hiding and preserving, like gold and silver)--then
the AMS Cave 4 linen date perhaps should be considered a
genuine question for the conventional view of the 68 CE terminus."
Greg Doudna
Copenhagen
For private reply, e-mail to Greg Doudna <gd@teol.ku.dk>
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