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Re: orion-list Re: Orion-list Another Proof.

On Sat, 25 Mar 2000 20:49:01 -0500, george.x.brooks@juno.com writes:
>T. Simms writes:

   [... Snip ...]

>I find Simms' tone overly dismissive.  This is not a particularly
>constructive approach to something as interesting and as compelling
>as the Suda entry on the Essenes.  Does Simms have anything
>to say about the content of the entry, rather than focusing on
>the age of the paper the entry was found on?

   No, George

   I'd prefer to deal with Qumran itself, not a Byzantine grabbag
   from a millennium later.  You saw, I take it, my list of editions
   going back to the 1400's.  Suidas is hardly news.

   These two quotes show my interest:

1.  W. F. Albright & D. N. Freedman writing in the April,
1963 issue of _The Journal of Bible and Religion_ write,
"In the Scrolls we have for the first time a direct Jewish 
background of the New Testament."

   On another list I suggest "and the Old Testament"
   be added.  Here, I'd write "and the Tanakh".

2.  John Allegro in his 1981 version of the 1956 _The Dead
Sea Scrolls: A Reappraisal_ writes on p. 54 of how the
researchers, himself among them, treated the relics: "The
reach the Museum from Kando or the Bedouin in cigarette
cartons and the like, and are immediately cleaned of the
white dust with which most are covered.  Sometimes this is
so firmly engrained that no amount of brushing will remove
it, and THEN WE FIND THAT A VERY LIGHT BRUSHING WITH A
CAMEL'S HAIR BRUSH TOUCHED WITH A NON-ACID OIL, LIKE CASTOR
OIL, will make the marl translucent and brings up the writ-
ing very clearly."

   My Capitalizing.

   Allegro's 1956 comment (for that's when he wrote it) is
   so offhand we miss its import.  Just so we miss the
   meaning of Howard Carter explaining how the gallons of
   holy oils poured over Tut's mummy congealed and solidi-
   fied in 3000 years to fix his body to the gold of the
   coffin.  

   Only by careful reading do we discover that they had to
   take the body to pieces to remove it.  The cool account
   tells us nothing of the damage done to the remains.  To
   remove the gold mask "the head had to be distracted
   from the thorax." 

   Later we are told at which vertebra the separation took
   place.

   A decade ago we had no idea the effect of modern con-
   tamination on ancient relics.  Today we still don't
   realize how much information such contamination des-
   troys.  We have NO RECORD of which fragments received
   the Castor Oil treatment.  So all are suspect.

   Hence, C-14 dating ALL the Scrolls would likely be
   earlier than the present dates assigned.  Any argument
   for a later date of deposit is doomed from the start. 
   The present deposiition date circum the arrival of
   Pompey will likely stand.

   George, you're trying to avoid the issue AND its con-
   sequences.

Tom Simms
SAINT JOHN, N. B.

^Z
For private reply, e-mail to Tom Simms <tsimms@mailserv.nbnet.nb.ca>
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