George, It's easy to explain why "quasi-religious" is an accurate term to describe craft-clans and guilds. It's also easy enough to explain why the teacher/ guardian role of craftmaster can be confused with a "priestly" role. But your question is unanswerable by anybody except the Talmudists and Eusebius -- IF that really is what Eusebius wrote.
There are things we simply cannot know -- not now, not ever. What a dead author was thinking when he wrote something must forever rest in the realm of the unknowable. Accept it. Don't waste effort on the unknowable. It is far better to build on things we can know -- such as the superficial similarities between "guildmaster" functions and "priestly" functions or the quasi-religious nature of craft clans and guilds or that eyeless cult statues date back to at least 22,000 BCE or that perspective in drawing is not an invention of the Renaissance for back in 28,000 BCE ancient artists knew all about perspective but did not use it to "give life" to a human figure. Please also remember that terms, tags, and names automatically bias thinking. The term "history" is biased towards modern perceptions. For example, we say "pre-historic," yet this term actually means prior to written records of history. There are, in fact, "written" records that do not record what we think of as history, yet are indeed history; these also date back to the Magdelene. >P.S. You wrote in a subsequent posting: >"(Here are three more for George when he is done with the ABD >article)" I was referring to the 3 sources mentioned by Avigdor. It may be a good idea to see if you can get a copy of that diss by David Weisberg from Michigan... or the published book form... if Avigdor will supply the exact bib ref for you. Regards, Rochelle -- Dr. R.I.S. Altman, co-coordinator, IOUDAIOS-L [EMAIL PROTECTED] For private reply, e-mail to "Rochelle I. Altman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
