Dead Sea Scrolls Hit The Fan

[Minimalist]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 927336.ece

Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, claims in a forthcoming study that not only were the 930 scrolls written by Jewish priests living in Jerusalem but that the Essenes as a sect did not exist.

I think Elior is over-reaching. Others have proposed that the Essenes had nothing to do with the scrolls or Qumran. But to suggest that, because they didn't write the scrolls means they never existed at all, seems way over the top. After all Philo, c 40 AD, Josephus c 93 AD and Pliny the Elder, before 79AD all mentioned the Essenes but Pliny never went there and his work seems to be primarily based on the work of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa who drew maps and wrote about the region when he was governor of Syria....in 15 BC.

So suggesting some sort of conspiracy between three Greco- Roman writers who never knew each other and a 4th who flourished long before the other three were born seems to over-engineer the idea by an order of magnitude.

[Ishtar]

Min

I think Elior is muddling up two facts:

1. She's right that the Essenes didn't write the Dead Sea Scrolls, imo. The Zadokites or Sadduces most probably did. We managed to work that much out on here a few months ago, in the Philo thread.

2. The Essenes are attested, as you say, to have existed.

But dare I suggest ....

3. The Essenes could have even have had the documents of the Zadokites, like the Damascus Rule, in their library (which is also attested by Philo).... but let's not throw that in and complicate matters even further!

Just stand well back from the excrement throwing ... that's my advice!

[Minimalist]

It's a Club thing, Ish.

The image of the Essenes as a monastic order carefully copying scrolls was created by Roland De Vaux, a French priest and Dominican monk himself. He did the excavations on Qumran and on the basis of a few inkwells and tables came up with the whole idea of the Essenes dutifully fulfilling the role of Medieval Christian monks copying books. Perhaps he was overly influenced by his own mythology? Yes, some Christian monks copied books. Others slopped hogs or grew vegetables. In Josephus' long write up on the Essenes he says nothing about them being scholarly and, in fact, suggests that they were workmen and many were involved in animal husbandry.

Others, like Norman Golb and Magen and Peleg have questioned the connection of the Essenes to the scrolls. But none of them ever suggested that because the Essenes did not copy the scrolls that they therefore never existed at all.

But there is a definite shit-throwing contest between the supporters of De Vaux and anyone who dares to question him!

Perhaps the Essenes would be amused by it all? "They said we did WHAT?"