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Re: orion-list Philo
I think Russell Gmirken and Stephen Goranson are focusing on
a rather odd area:
**Using Philo (whether early or late in his life) to determine who
the Wicked Priest might be**.
Russell's interest (even if circumstantial) is odd to me since he
believes
Philo falsified entirely the existence of a Jewish community called
the Therapeutae.... in order to follow certain written parallels in
Egyptian
pagan priestly writings. Though the alleged motivation for Philo to do
such a thing is as mysterious as Russell's charges against Philo
(especially since that Philo also includes the idea of **female**
"militants" or monks) within the Therapeutae community (and for
which I know of no Egyptian parallels), it would certainly make
Russell's reliance on Philo for anything concerning the Wicked
Priest, or anything concerning Judaism, as inexplicable.
As far as Prof. Goranson's interest in Philo is concerned, it would
seem that since Philo did not write any of the Wicked Priest text of
the DSS material, we might as well be looking in Josephus with equal
validity. In this case, all the reference to Philo has done is triggered
Russell's attention. Unless Prof. Goranson can specifically spell out
the "vector" he is pursuing, I would think clues within the Dead
Sea Scrolls will be the most conclusive way of indicating
whether the Wicked Priest was someone "known" to moderns
through surviving histories, or if the Wicked Priest was someone
that written history has more or less ignored.
Certainly I would hate to think that the Wicked Priest (or the
Teacher of Righteousness) are not "leading characters" in our
existing awareness of the history of Palestine. But I always
wonder if these characters might be someone obscure with
actions that went un-noticed, or un-heralded, by the writers
that we know of today.... but not by the writers of the Dead
Sea texts.
George Brooks
Tampa, FL
For private reply, e-mail to George Brooks <george.x.brooks@juno.com>
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