Re: [Megillot] SV: osey hattora

[RUSSELLGMIRKIN]

Hi Soren,   There's a basic methodological problem, in that the scrolls appear to combine literatures authored by two distinct groups (which are combined only in CD and 4QSerek).  The halachic legal traditions in 11QT, 4QMMT, and (H) legal materials in CD have strong correlations with the Sadducees and do not appear consistent with Josephus's Essenes; the correlation between Josephus's Essenes and the scrolls is pretty much restricted to the Serekh text 1QS (and 1QS parallels in Serekh legal materials in CD).  From source critical arguments from CD, the Sadducean halachah appears to relate to the Teacher of Righteousness and share authorship with the pesherim (including 1QpHab and 4QpPs), while the Serekh texts that might have some argument for having been used by the Essenes in the later time of Josephus's sources lack the term 'osey hattora that has been suggested to be behind the name Essene.  These facts undermine the proposed derivation of Essene from 'osey hattora.   Best regards, Russell Gmirkin So the term 'osey hattora is in two pesher texts only (pHab and pPsalms a). That makes it a very good candidate for a sectarian _expression_, (although being in two texts only it could be a term characteristic of one specific writer?). And it seems obvious that the writer counts himself among those doing the tora. But occurrence in two out of several dozen sectarian texts is a little scarce for an actual technical self-designation, wouldn't you say? If that is what they actually considered to be the word(s) for being one of them rather than being somebody else, how come there's not a single occurrence in 1QS e.g.?