Perhaps someone (other than those already writing in this thread) could inform us about any relevant new datings provided in the new book edited by Jean- Baptiste Humbert and Jan Gunneweg (which hasn't arrived at our library yet).
Greg Doudna quoted a sentence *fragment* from Rachel Bar-Nathan's book. I don't have the book for context at hand. Presumably she does not mean Ib began in 31. In any case, the place to quote is the one explicitly addressing the Ib end date, as given earlier, and in agreement with Magness, and in plain disagreement with the online paper. Perhaps we spoke past one another on Sukenik. My point is pre-1951 non- consensus in dating. From his son Yadin, Message of the Scrolls 1957 p. 18 quoting Sukenik's diary 28 Nov 1948 "...the writing resembled letters which I had found on several occasions on small coffins and on ossuaries which I discovered in and around Jerusalem, in some ancient tombs dating back to the period before the Roman destruction of the city." That is, pre-70 CE, just like Qumran mss. Here then is documentation, Greg, of what you said did not happen with the 33 AD midpoint date of linen with archaeologists. G. Lankester Harding, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 1952 page 105. Harding explains that they found the (really) first century *CE* "scroll" jar. Then, next paragraph: "This is interesting confirmation of the accuracy of the date established by submitting some of the linen from the cave to what is known as the Carbon 14 test....with a central figure of A.D. 33." It did indeed happen. The Masada character of texts, as explained before, need not by explained by chronology, but, say, by ownership(s). And the sample was limited and skewed, excluding Genesis as if Jubilees and excluding non-canon (when was the canon fixed?) and ignoring Samaritan and non-canon elements; plainly the country could have (and did have) different loci with differing texts at one time. Stephen Goranson _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
