Interesting read about a priceless relic.
Posted on 03/16/2009 10:29:53 AM PDT by Zakeet
Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now, a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all - a claim that has shaken the bedrock of Biblical scholarship.
Elior, who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, claims that the Essenes were a fabrication by the 1st century A.D. Jewish-Roman historian, Josephus Flavius, and that his faulty reporting was passed on as fact through the centuries. As Elior explains, the Essenes make no mention of themselves in the 900 scrolls found by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947 in the caves of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. "Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls," Elior tells TIME. "But they didn't exist. This is legend on a legend."
Eior contends that Josephus, a former Jewish priest who wrote his history while a captive in Rome, "wanted to explain to the Romans that the Jews weren't all losers and traitors, that there were many exceptional Jews of religious devotion and heroism."
[Snip]
James Charlesworth, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls project at Princeton Theological Seminary and an expert on Josephus, says that it is not unusual that the word "Essenes" does not appear in the scrolls. "It's a foreign label," he tells TIME. "When they refer to themselves, it's as 'men of holiness' or 'sons of light.'" Charlesworth contends that at least eight scholars in antiquity refer to the Essenes. One proof of Essene authorship of the Dead Sea Scrolls, he says, was the large number of inkpots found by archeologists at Qumran.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Interesting read about a priceless relic.
I picked up a Time Magazine for the first time in a while yesterday.
It was exceptionally thin with a lack of advertisements. Even the drug companies’ advertisements meant to condition patients in doctors’ waiting rooms to demand from their doctors overblown cures.
Misleading headline.
Personally, I think that Sukelik was correct with an idea he floated early on in the DSS debate (back in the early 1960s, IIRC), which was that the Qumran caves were basically genizot - mortuaries for worn-out or corrupted texts. If so, this would seem to give added support to the preservation of the Masoretic text, since what would then seem to have been thrown away as corrupt in the caves would be mss. that deviated from the Masoretic, even in a few words or letters, suggesting the methodology of the Masoretes is older than scholarship currently thinks it was.
Time is reporting it loudly. Therefore, it’s probably wrong because they want to find ways to attack the Bible. And in those days, Historians made errors, wrote in artistic fashion, and they sometimes were mistaken in their interpretation of what they observed,,,,
but there are almost no examples of outright lies.
She sounds like a liberal to me. It is based on her own credibility. Critics of the Bible are also Professors in our seminaries here in America. Hers is a personal opinion. It has garnered her attention, hasn't it?
It sows error. Flimsy .
Shame on her. MO
You certainly can’t say that about Time!
TIME magazine is TRASH now. Flush it AWAY!
True. And the topic is over my head as far as actual understanding of the issues. But i do know 3 things for sure.
1) Flavius Josephus, with both Roman and Jewish roots, wrote a book, “The Jewish War” shortly after the war. He described many Jewish factions, of which the Esseines were one.
2) “Time” has a reputation for dishonesty and anti-Christianity.
3) The person saying Josephus utterly lied and made it all up, is a controversial scholar, in a field and geographical location where dishonesty about antiquity is the *rule*, for numerous modern political and religious reasons. And her personal religion would benefit by negating the dead sea scrolls.
Those three facts make this,,,, suspect.
Strange idea though,,,,”shaheed, this scroll is worn out (or completely wrong) carry it FAR into the desert, miles and miles,, then find a cave where it can be safely stored”.
Strange behavior to do with their discards.
Not necessarily - think of the culture. The Jews in that day were very reverential towards any manuscript with the name of God on it. They would "retire" the mss. where they wouldn't be destroyed by human hands, yet also be unavailable to introduce further corruption. This is much the same reason why many medieval synagogues had a genizah for retiring mss., rather than just burning them or trashing them in a trash pile.
Yeah, just like the “Odessy” wasn’t written by Homer, but by another Greek with the same name!
How does a celibate sect flourish?
The problem is that for much of the history of this period Josephus is all we’ve got. And given his background- rebel leader turned Vespasian client- he can’t be considered an objective, unbiased source.
http://jewsandjoes.com/timeline-of-the-last-days-daniels-shmita-shavua-prophecy.html
The Massacre of the Innocents is an episode of mass infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, that appears in the Gospel of Matthew.
Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls
FAQ
In what languages were the scrolls written ?
The majority of the scrolls were written in the Hebrew Language (approximately 90-95%) with Assyrian Block script. From this majority there are a few cases in which the scribes used Paleo-Hebrew (see for example 4QPaleoExodus). In addition to the texts found in Hebrew there were also some texts written in Aramaic and Greek.
>> “When they refer to themselves, it’s as ‘men of holiness’ or ‘sons of light.’” <<
So they used a different name. Theories of why Josephus used “essenoi” abound, but many of them sound like an outsiders’ appellation. THIS sounds like a historian decided to spin his findings in such a was as to maximinze press coverage, which has become an enemy of research.
“Time is reporting it loudly. Therefore, it’s probably wrong ...”
That’s my initial reaction. I plan to investigate further to see what SEVERAL scholars are saying about this. Sometimes, the “scholars” themselves need investigating. ;-)
My thoughts exactly. If the scrolls were no good, they would have trashed them, not hauled them off to some God-forsaken cave.
Also, Josephus was recognized for his accurate writings. If he fabricated the Essenes, then others from that time would have questioned his writings. None did. End of story.
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