On Sat., June 5, Ken Penner, moderator of megillot, asked, "would anyone like to respond to Greg Doudna's article, 'Redating the Dead Sea Scroll Deposits' on the Bible and Interpretation site (http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Doudna_Scroll_Deposits_1.htm ). This was one day after the article first appeared on the Bible and Interpretation site. On Sunday June 6 Stephen Goranson wrote on megillot: Since you asked, Ken, I will respond. The article is to a large extent out of touch with, or misrepresents, Qumran archaeology. Of course, I can agree with sentences here or there; e.g.: "She [Prof. Jodi Magness] would probably disagree with a lot of this paper." Then a "senior archaeologist" is quoted as opining that such may not be the case "as much as you think." Prof. Magness is in the field doing real archaeology, and though she hasn't time to rehash these matters, I have permission to pass along the information that she indeed quite disagrees with several of Doudna's Qumran archaeology presentations. The purported reaction of Jodi Magness puzzled me. In the several personal dealings I have had with her she has been uniformly courteous. Was it possible that Jodi Magness would dismiss my detailed article in such manner, via a third-party report, saying that "she hasn't time to rehash", and that she "quite disagrees" with the paper, without any specifics? Had she read, considered, and reacted to my paper so rapidly and in this manner? I wrote a brief email to Jodi at her university email address asking if this report of her reaction to my paper was accurately reported. I received back an automated email response from her server saying that she would be out of her office until July. I then wrote Stephen Goranson a polite email offlist asking if he could assist in my making contact with Jodi: did he have a current email contact for her? I noted the automated reply I had received, and asked if, since he had been in contact with her in the past couple of days, he could help me contact her. I thanked him in advance for his assistance. My inquiry to Goranson was sent last night. Some seven hours after I emailed this inquiry to Goranson, another post from Goranson appeared on megillot. However, Goranson has not responded to my offlist inquiry as of the time of this post. This morning I called Jodi Magness's office number. I received a recorded message in Jodi's voice identifying herself as Jodi Magness, stating that she would be outside of the United States and unavailable by either email or phone between May 11 and July 28. But if Jodi was unavailable by either email or phone between those dates, how was Goranson in contact with Magness on June 4-6? Perhaps it was by a private phone. In any case, I ask Goranson in fairness to clarify in further detail Magness's response to my paper this past weekend, so that I may be able to respond to specific issues raised by Magness with respect to this paper. Greg Doudna
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