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Re: orion-list Pacifism of Essenes deconstructed

To David and Greg:

I recently FINISHED Michael Wise's FIRST MESSIAH.  An excellent work!
He brings together strands of material that have not been brought
together
before.

While parts of it get almost wearisome because it is obviously a
fictional
rendering (to give the reader the FLAVOR of what might have happened), I 
found it to be an important work.

As far as the incident described by Greg about Judah the Essene and
"inciting"
an assasination, Mr. Wise does NOT mention this at all.  The possible
"FUN"
he could have had with this is SO obvious, one wonders if he isn't laying
the
ground work for a SECOND book.  He probably has chosen the right
approach.

He does NOT over-step the reach of his conclusions by trying to tie his
JUDAH
into EVERY Judah mentioned by Josephus.  Instead, he works to put
together 
the MOST reliable of ideas and conjecture, and yet still cover NEW
ground.

In the end, I have concluded that much of his argumentation is correct,
but NOT
the time frame he suggests.  But maybe I'll change my mind as time goes
by.

George Brooks
Tampa, FL
George.X.Brooks@JUNO.com



On Thu, 16 Dec 1999 10:09:12 -0800 "Suter, David" <dsuter@stmartin.edu>
writes:
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Doudna
> To: 'orion@mscc.huji.ac.il'
> Sent: 12/16/99 6:04 AM
> Subject: orion-list Pacifism of Essenes deconstructed
> 
> 
> The question to me is not whether this reading or interpretation
> of the story is an obvious one but why it has never been 
> mentioned (so far as I know) in any published literature on 
> Essenes.  Is it the romanticizing of the Essenes that has
> shaped responses to texts such as this in ways below 
> consciousness, such that obvious readings are not simply 
> rejected, but are literally not even seen such that they can 
> be rejected?
> 
> Greg Doudna
> ******************************************************************
> 
> Greg,
> 
> You might want to take a look at Michael Wise's The First Messiah.  
> I'm just
> starting to read it, and in leafing through I can't so far determine 
> whether
> he deals with the incident that you mention, but he does cast the 
> first
> messiah as a prophet named Judah related to the period in which you 
> are
> interested.
> 
> David Suter
> Saint Martin's College
> For private reply, e-mail to "Suter, David" <dsuter@stmartin.edu>
For private reply, e-mail to George Brooks <george.x.brooks@juno.com>
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