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

Re: orion-list Philo and pacifism of Essenes

Dierk:

Sometimes you work very hard to develop a "significance" without
a "difference".

Obviously there was a general ancient sentiment against women
joining in warfare.... as there is even today.

The point I was making is that if the Egyptian Therapeutae allowed
women to participate as "equals" (or near equals?), while the Essenes
had a reputation for keeping women separate.

This "separateness" may have still have:
1] allowed for all female households in and amongst the
	male households, or
2] which allowed living with women as "married Essenes" for those
	Essenes who fit that category, or
3] which allowed living with "sisters" and "mothers" in an unwed
	state but excluding them from the spiritual function of the
	community.

Thus, in terms of "potential" pacifism or aggressiveness, it is
easier to see the Therapeutae as having the more pacificist
inclinations.  They seem more flexible from the foundation.

However, in the end, I have to Greg Doudna in maintaining that
this whole idea of pacifist Therapeautae **or** Essenes is more
myth than reality.

To the Doers of Torah/Doers of War/Healers/Stalwart Ones
of Old,

George Brooks
Tampa, FL

On Tue, 21 Dec 1999 20:25:29 +0100 "Dierk van den Berg" <haGalil@gmx.net>
writes:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: George Brooks <george.x.brooks@Juno.Com>
> To: <orion@mscc.huji.ac.il>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 4:38 AM
> Subject: orion-list Philo and pacifism of Essenes
> 
> 
> [....]
> > If we follow the logic of the War Scroll, women had to
> > be kept separate form "pure" men so that the angels would
> > be able to fight along side the males in holy jihad.  The
> > question remains as to whether the Jewish "masses" had any
> > idea about the War Scroll, or whether it was one of those top,
> > top secrets of the Doers of Torah/Doers of War.
> [....]
> 
> -----
> 
> It is less the logic of the scroll in special but the logic of the 
> ancient
> art of war in general which on principle explains the absence of 
> women from
> the terror of close combat, the slaughter in archaic hand-to-hand 
> fighting
> after the initial collision of the hosts, heavenly or not:
> 
> So crowded together were the dead that the corpses of the slain, 
> propped up
> by the sheer mass, were not able to find space to fall over. One 
> soldier in
> front of me, with his head cleaved - a strong sword thrust had 
> sliced it
> into equal parts - pressed in on all sides, stood erected like a 
> tree stump.
> (Ammianus 18.8.12)
> 
> And no question remains whether the War Scroll - an internal 
> tractate
> addressed to the Maskil - was known to the Many or not: The missing 
> of
> causes of war requires their common rating within the yachad, i.e.,
> knowledge about the Book of Jubilees.
> 
> Dierk
> 
> 
> For private reply, e-mail to "Dierk van den Berg" <haGalil@gmx.net>
For private reply, e-mail to George Brooks <george.x.brooks@juno.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.