Several last items of interest worth noting ... Jehon Grist, "The 'Home of the Scrolls'--A Tour of Qumran" http://www.lehrhaus.org/online/scrolls/scrolls_4.html "Phase Ib was certainly the era when some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written, whether at Qumran or elsewhere ... "Phase II saw the village [Qumran] rebuilt more or less along the same lines as Phase IB. There is no question that the population of Phase II was Jewish, although a few noteworthy changes in one or two of the buildings hint that their practices may have been slightly different ... "One interesting point about the dining hall: After its destruction in Phase Ib, it was rebuilt in Phase II along the same lines as its predecessor. De Vaux reported one interesting set of differences: the opening for the water channel was blocked off, the floor no longer sloped down toward the west, and the southern door (where wash water could exit the room) was blocked off. Whoever built the later phase of the dining hall did not feel that the absolute ritual cleanliness of the Phase IB dining hall had to be maintained in the same way. This mysterious change is a critical issue the scholarly community has not addressed. ... "Rebuilt anywhere from a few to about twenty-five years later, the village [Qumran] resumed life along similar (although not identical) lines to that of its predecessor. One noteworthy exception is the dining hall of Phase II, whose rebuilding shows changes suggesting that the new population was not as concerned with cleanliness and purity in this room as the preceding phase. Does this suggest a slightly different Jewish group in Phase II from that which resided at Qumran in Period IB?..." (Note: Grist is conventional in about everything else. It is his questioning of de Vaux's interpretation of the same group between Ib and II, allegedly required on archaeological grounds, that is of interest here.) ***** James Charlesworth, _The Pesharim and Qumran History_ (Eerdmans, 2002), claims the following summary is not only his own view but an attempt to write a consensus for what leading Qumran scholars generally agree upon (e.g. p. 66). Charlesworth unfortunately renumbers de Vaux's periods causing confusion, i.e. de Vaux's Ia becomes for Charlesworth Phase I; de Vaux's Ib becomes for Charleworth "Phase II"; a period of abandonment between Ib and II becomes for Charlesworth "Phase III"; de Vaux's II becomes for Charlesworth "Phase IV"; and de Vaux's III becomes Charlesworth's "Phase V". (Whew! Is that clearer now?) Charlesworth writes of his "Phase II", i.e. Qumran Period Ib: "It seems relatively certain that virtually all the pesharim and related commentaries were composed during this period ["Phase II", that is, Period Ib].... What seems evident is the conclusion that the Qumran sectarian documents were composed, and in almost all cases received final editing, before the end of Phase II [Period Ib]. This widely affirmed consensus results from five decades of intensive research ..." (p. 49) "... we are confronted with many unknowns. For example, we do not know what percentage of those who fled Qumran ca. 40 [BCE], or later, returned to Qumran and lived there until the destruction of 68 C.E...." (p. 65) *** Finally, consider the following question in light of the quotations which follow. Question: Did the Sect at Qumran control Jerusalem and the temple during Qumran Period Ib? And was Hyrcanus II, the leading Hasmonean ruler during most of this period, the leading figure of the Qumran sect? Magness (2002: 66): "the presence of miqva'ot (ritual baths), the pantry containing more than 1000 dishes (L86), and possible evidence for animal bone deposits outside the buildings in pre-31 B.C.E. contexts indicate that the settlement [at Qumran] was sectarian from the beginning." Bar-Nathan (2002:5): the finds from Qumran (Period Ib)... are, in fact, identical to those exposed in the Hasmonean palace complex at Jericho." Bar-Nathan (2002: 198): "the strict observation of the Jewish laws of cleanliness and urity [by the Hasmoneans], as expressed by the abundance of ritual baths (miqvaot), found in almost every unit of their lavish palace complex at Jericho ..." Bar-Nathan (2002: 198): "... the use in Jericho of locally produced pottery with a continuous Judean tradition, the lack of imported pottery, and the profusion of bowls and their relationship to the miqvaot, might all be related to unwritten Sadducean laws and customs ... the great resemblance of the pottery in Hasmonean Jericho to that of Qumran Period Ib is notable ..." Bar-Nathan (2002: 186): "it is known that the Hasmonean rulers, with the exception of Queen Alexandra, who leaned toward the Pharisees, belonged to the Sadducean sect, especially Alexander Jannaeus". Jutta Jokiranta, " 'Sectarianism' of the Qumran 'Sect': Sociological Notes", _Dead Sea Discoveries_ (yr. and vol. missing on my photocopy, but c. 2001 or so), pp. 223-239. (An important article.) "the term 'sect'--if insisted--[used] of a group behind the Scrolls should be free of presuppositions such as that this group had a very marginal position ... or that it protested against the Temple establishment ..." (Jokiranta, 239 n. 48). Just something to think about... Greg Doudna
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