Posted on 07/30/2004 8:49:22 AM PDT by blam
GGG Ping.
Reminds me of the joke about the monk studying the dead sea scrolls who discovered that an early scribe had accidently left out the "r" in "celebrate" in the passage concerning rules for priests.
Interesting. Anybody seen the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit sponsored by the Israel Antiquities Authority that is currently traveling the museum circuit?
I recall reading a book by an archaeologist (whose name I've forgotten) who theorized that the scrolls were written, not by the Essenes, but by a militant sect he referred to as the "Zadokites." He made a fairly good case for it, if I recall correctly.
"It's impossible to say that the people who lived at Qumran were poor," said Peleg. "It is also impossible that de Vaux did not see the finds we saw. He simply ignored what didn't suit him."I've read about this before. The so-called scribal room of the supposed Essenes (an obscure sect reported by Josephus I think it was -- and by no one else) turned out to be the dining room of the ancient analogue to a resort hotel overlooking the Dead Sea. The hotel (and brothel) thrived from the salt trade, which existed as long ago as Sodom and Gomorrah. The scrolls, along with sacramental items from the Temple, were hidden by Temple personnel prior to its destruction, and were not recovered because those who did the hiding died. The Copper Scroll contains mostly obscure descriptions (landmarks such as trees which no longer exist; names of this or that person's well; etc) of the hiding places, but the Copper Scroll itself was never recovered in ancient times. 's fascinating.
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From what I have read, noboy is really sure who the Qumran people were.
The Essenes were one of a bewildering number of different Jewish sects existing at the time and connecting them with Qumran is a tenuous effort.
What is more interesting than who the Qumranites actually were, were the contents of the scrolls. The scrolls themselves contain various types of documents. Some are not found in the Bible, such as the "War Scroll" or the "Temple Scroll".
Others are different versions of various books of the Old Testament which versions, although different in some aspects, all basically tell the same Biblical story, confirming the antiquity of the Old Testament itself. There are also books which are not not included in the Christian Bible or official Jewsih religious texts for various reasons but still used by some Judaeo-Christian religious groups today. Check out "Banned Books of the Bible" on the history channel.
The non-biblical texts allude to tales of a great struggle between the sons of darkness and the sons of light - whether this was a figurative or real struggle is uncertain, as well as who these characters represent represent.
The people who wrote the scrolls were obsessed with ritual cleanliness, with respect to issues like where a person could have a bowel movement, how to perform ritual baths and rites to remove uncleanliness, etc.
The Qumran site itself contains ruins which could be interpreted to be ritual baths.
Its extremely interesting and most unfortunate that more is not known of this intreguing settlement and the scrolls themselves. With time, more material may appear.
Anybody seen the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit sponsored by the Israel Antiquities Authority that is currently traveling the museum circuit?I saw it. It was arranged for a limited number of museums, and one of those cancelled (supposedly due to terrorist threats; I won't record here what I really think happened) so the local museum (Grand Rapids Michigan) picked it up. The exhibition would be worth seeing if one is also going to see the rest of a major museum. IOW, it was kind of a dud. There were a dozen or so scroll fragments (literally fragments; it's fortunate that any of them survived) with a description of each one. That could easy be seen in 30 minutes, if that much time would be needed.
Given the nature of the ruins, I think it is difficult to ascertain with any degree of certitude what these structures were used for. We can only make assumptions.
What complicates the whole picture is an apparent conflict of interpretation between Jewish scholars and some Catholic scholars regarding the implications of these findings, which each group tending to view the material from their own perspective.
The real truth may lie somewhere in between or be something entirely different.
From what I have read, deciphering these scrolls was quite a cryptological effort.
For a layman like you or me, most of what has been uncovered, aside fro the actual site itself, would not mean much without extensive narrative and explanation.
The Qumran site itself contains ruins which could be interpreted to be ritual baths.Odd that the jewelry etc is attributed to the later Romans, while the baths -- which point in a very Roman direction -- are not. :')
The Jews in the Roman World
by Michael Grant
another editionJesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels
by Michael Grant
I'd be interested if anyone has recommendations for good books on the Dead Sea Scrolls. I've had a nagging interest in them ever since I learned about them in my Catholic HS freshman religion class. Most seem quite detailed, which at this point in my interest isn't really all that appealing.
mark
Unless ancient pilgrims traveled like the folks on the S.S. Minnow, and neglected to pack their stuff when they left, the presence of things like jewelry and cosmetics containers indicates that the people lived there.
BTTT
bttt
Complicating the controversy was the discovery amid the ruins of a Gao'uld Hand Device...
It took me a minute....Very Good!
I think one of the big things was that they didn't claim Mary was a virgin.
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