Notes favoring Judah the Essene as the "teacher of righteousness" and Alexander Jannaeus as, in Qumran views, "wicked priest."
Generally, paleography, C14, and archaeology favor the era of the above moreso than times before or after. (I am so far undecided on S. Pfann's datings of cryptic script texts; but apparently he has more publications in the works.) Many scholars who hold Jonathan I as the priest also hold to the fading case for an Ossene-Asidaioi link. 4Q448 study is not over. Two important publications by E. Main, two by A. Lemaire, and one by Lorein (see orion bibl. or ask) have not yet been adequately considered or adequately been countered in print, to my knowledge-- they say the text (and Lemaire especially takes into account the upper text) is against Alexander. Plus, some (not me) think it names Jonathan I. In any case, the priest was "called by the name of truth" at first, before changing (4QpNah's Lion), in Qumran views. See, e.g., publications of H. Eshel and M. Stern on periods in his reign. MMT (in some version) was probably sent to Alexander early, miqsat ma'ase hatorah from self-called osei hatorah. M. Wise's book, if memory serves, never utters the Essene word in the main text (only in a couple notes). He, Y. Hirschfeld, and others, were influenced by N. Golb in trying to will away Essenes to enforced oblivion. Golb's never more than 4000 Essenes (in the bios praktikos) were actually (reportedly, by both Philo and Josephus) over, hyper, 4000 at one time, and "myriads," since Moses, Philo wrote. Some even deny Essenes while denying denying Essenes; or in one, happily only past, case wrote Essenes cannot be located archaeologically, and (elsewhere), Essenes, in this archaeological site, were not here (Excluding them was an allowed option; finding them not). Such leads to considering Sadducees and Pharisees with Essenes bracketed out. Simply put, on this point, Joseph Baumgarten was right (from his 1980 JJS article and on) and Larry Schiffman wrong. Sure, Essenes shared some views (not properly called "halakha," which Essenes opposed) with 2nd Temple Sadducees; and other views indeed they shared with Pharisees. "Sadducee" as used in Talmud is a rather different, broader term than in 2nd Temple period, and is only unhelpfully retrojected. Posidonius was used by Strabo, and Josephus used Strabo. Ant. 13 has Essenes at 146 BC, since their histories began then, when Polybius left off. See K. Clarke's book for some corrective to Kidd's Posidonius edition, now complete in 4 volumes. (And cf. B. Bar-Kochva in Josephus Kolloquium.) Yet Kidd delivers well. Read there of Posidonius on etymology (including of Arabs, Aramaeans...; W, Bauer interestingly in retrospect, wrote in Pauly-Wissowa that he didn't know the origin of "Essenes," ["factores legis" in old books] but for info on name-building read Strabo, on Posidonius), on ethnography, on Stoicism, on heimarmene, on admiring Moses and seeing Alexander as a specifically-named tryant and superstitious departee from Moses' teachings, negative on slavery, on bad Syrian (P. from Apamea) banquets, diners with oil on their skin. Philo, Dio, Marcus Agrippa (Pliny's source), and Pliny would have read Posidonius directly. Left to his own unsourced resume-building devices Josephus in Vita links Pharisees, not Essenes, with Stoics. That Josephus used sources is plain. R. Bergmeier (Die Essener-Berichte 1993) did not sort these our persuasively. But Steve Mason (orion) and Ken Penner (JBS 1.4, 2001)--though making several quite useful observations on the Greek text--excessively deemphasize sources. That Josephus uses "heimarmene" in Ant 13 of Essenes only suggests a (Stoic) source; and Josephus names Strabo in book 13. Our Yehudah ha-___ was momentarily disappointed in his teaching when Alexander's brother wasn't dead, as was fated. Of course, we read (also in Ant 13/War 1), he did die, at the tower of Straton, as related, as Jean Carmignac noted in RQ 38, by Strabon. best, Stephen Goranson _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
