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Re: orion-list More Detail vs. Less Detail - - Hippolytus vs. Josephus?

Yes, Dierk,

You say:
>" Hippo's dependence from Josephus or the dependence of both of them 
> from a  common source (sic!) is scholarly common knowledge"

The latter position is **exactly** my position, that Josephus and
Hippolytus depend on a common source (I repeat, a common 
source).

As soon as I read both writers it was obvious to me.
This is **very** different from saying that Hippolytus "depended" on
Josephus.  Josephus tells us that he took at least once Essene oath
of secrecy; he was an Essene practioner for three years.  There may
have been several oaths to take during that process.  And by reading
his material you can almost hear the evasiveness in his voice as he
tries to tell us about the Essenes without telling us too much. 
Hippolytus
never swore an Essenian oath.  And his material, while having the
same structure at times, is more clear and makes more sense out of the
facts presented than Josephus does.

And there's a bonus!  Josephus has been around for 2000 years and
subject to the vagaries of copyists trying to make a point (or "lose"
a point).  Hippolytus's work was only "discovered" in the late 1800's
in a Greek monastery and thus has not come under the quill sharpener's
knife nearly as many times.

George Brooks
Tampa, FL




On Mon, 27 Dec 1999 12:26:55 +0100 "Dierk van den Berg" <haGalil@gmx.net>
writes:
> George,
> 
> the striving for precision to answer possible questions clearly 
> unmasks a
> text as being revised, a known technique in ancient 
> religio-political
> literature, which lead to the genres of apocrypha and anti-heretic 
> tractates
> to justify/defend exegetical positions.
> 
> Nevertheless the inspired author might have found a pearl simply by 
> his
> brain- or bodywork... :)
> 
> Hippo's dependence from Josephus or the dependence of both of them 
> from a
> common source (sic!) is scholarly common knowledge; cf. e.g. 
> VanderKam_The
> Dead Sea Scrolls Today_ Grand Rapids 1994, ch. 3.1.2
> 
> 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>
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