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orion-list Angel scroll
Against this text being genuine, just offhand, is the name
"Yeshua" (is "ben Padiah" supposed to call to mind "ben
pandera"?); the herbs for healing that agree so well, as no
other Qumran text does, with Josephus's description of
Essenes on this point; the "Dominican connection" which
pushes all the buttons of those who think there may be
something to the Baigent & Leigh conspiracy theory; and
the 6-foot length, which curiously agrees with the alleged
6-foot length of that bogus, earlier (but wholly different in
claimed content) "Jesus scroll" of Donovan Joyce a few
years back.
I see one strong argument against an actual forgery,
however: a forged 6-foot Dead Sea scroll seems difficult
to accomplish in practical terms. (Any buyer would
certainly want an AMS date on the parchment to verify its
antiquity, and where is a forger going to come up with
6 feet of uninscribed 2000-year old parchment?) At least
D. Joyce solved that problem by having the scroll unrolled
in a Jerusalem hotel bathroom for him to see and read,
with no other corroborating witnesses, then rolled up and
allegedly spirited off to the Kremlin who is keeping it secret
from the world to this day.
Therefore--just as a guess--I say this looks like it is either
a practical joke or an anti-Dominican/Catholic non-joke (or
combination thereof), but it should not be assumed any actual
manuscript exists behind the transcription. Any forthcoming
denials from the relevant Dominican sources and the named
monk will have no effect on those predisposed to believe the
Baigent and Leigh conspiracy theory model; therefore they
would be the perfect ones to whom to attribute possession.
Rather than someone planning to sell an ancient text, could
it be someone planning to sell a modern book?
> Greg Doudna
> Copenhagen
>
For private reply, e-mail to Greg Doudna <gd@teol.ku.dk>
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