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orion-list probably not Maccabees; etc.
1. Emile Puech's DJD XXV is an important and interesting and learned
volume, IMO. Yet he apparently did sometimes try (as Collins' DSD review
suggested) a bit much to fit some texts to a Maccabean setting. We know,
e.g., that 1 Maccabees, probably written in Hebrew circa 100 BCE, and
therefore available to Qumranites, is quite absent at Qumran. Even the word
"maccabee," as far as I know, does not appear in Qumran ms. Hanukkah is
also absent, despite great focus on calendar issues. And there's a
difference on temple tax (see A. Baumgarten in Hengel FS). Etcetera. Puech
tried to link Hasidim in 4Q521 with Essenes. Not much new in that attempt,
though "hasidim" is no more prominent in Qumran mss than one would expect
of a group using Hebrew Bible; ordinary. The next paragraph (on p. 37) of
his argument for 4Q521 as a Qumran sectarian text, though, is quite
interesting: it has characteristic uses of the Hebrew root 'asah. Which, at
Qumran, is extraordinary.
2. Since historiographic comments have been offered: the historian Richard
Hofstader make some interesting observations on why, in his view, in some
cases, despite available evidence to the contrary some hold to extremely
improbable historical constructions. "The Paranoid Style in American
Politics" (NY: Knopf, 1966). Recall that Allegro recognized Essenes at
Qumran.
3. Joan E. Taylor wrote a substantial DSD article on the Qumran cemetery or
cemeteries and women. It raises many questions. I await Joe Zias' article.
For now, I merely note one note which unfortunately refers to a BAR article
on a Qumran stone object, and she asserts the object is evidence of
weaving. Be that as it may, neither that (poor, IMO) article nor Taylor
mentioned the substantial publications of U. Glessmer and M. Albani (in RB,
in the Provo conf., in A Day at Qumran) on the stone artifact as an
astronomical instrument.
4. There's plenty we don't yet know about Essenes and Qumran, but research
shows some of the former did live at the latter, e.g., in the time of Herod
the Great, and some Qumran texts (S, MMT, pesharim...) are self-identified
as Essene.
5. Those who wish to call Qumranites Sadducees or MMT Sadducee might
venture to read publications which seriously question such linkage: e.g.,
Y. Elman in Reading MMT; M. Kister in the latest Tarbiz; me in Flint &
VanderKam vol. 2; and Joseph Baumgarten, who first noticed this issue (JJS
1980), in JAOS.
best wishes,
Stephen Goranson
For private reply, e-mail to Stephen Goranson <goranson@duke.edu>
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