Here's a heuristic exercise, for those open to it. From such people comments are welcome, especially on g-megillot (this is also posted to the reopened ane list, in part to remind DSS scholars of g-megillot list). G-megillot info page: http://mailman.mcmaster.ca/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
As is well known, Philo wrote about Essenes in three extant works, but his extant works do not include the names Sadducees or Pharisees. But is it possible that, in one work that is quite favorable to Essenes, Philo shared an Essene view of certain rulers, viewed quite unfavorably, who were influenced by Sadducees and Pharisees? In Every Good Man is Free, Philo discusses this Stoic saying. In section 74 he praises varioius groups "in which deeds are held in higher esteem than words." This is the reading by F.H. Colson in Loeb Philo IX p.52.1; compare his Preface and Introduction and the praise on the volume and specifically on this reading by A.D. Nock in Classical Studies 1943. Philo names Magi and Gymnosophists. Strabo, influenced by Posidonius, also brought up Magi and Gymnosophists in his Geography section on Jews 16.2.34f; this text is explicitly negative on Alexander Jannaeus; would that Strabo's longer book, History,were fully extant, with its mentions of Essenes, partly used by Josephus, e.g. Ant. 13; see JJS 1994, 295-8. Then Philo (75) brings up Essenes in "Palestinian Syria." He praises them in several sections. Recall, that from the Qumran Essene point of view, the Wicked Priest is a High Priest, a Hasmonean. 4QNpesherNahum, as many of us think, and as brilliantly supported and extended by J. VanderKam in the E. Tov and A. Saldarini Festschriften and in his 2004 High Priests book, Alexander Jannaeus appears as a Lion who killed his own people, and Pharisees appear as Seekers of Smooth Things/Flattery, a pun against Pharisee Halakha. Pharisees are also called Ephraim; an individual or a group can have two nanes in Qumran texts. E.g., the Lion can also be the Wicked Priest. The following is Colson's Loeb translation of sections 88-91. Two types of rulers are discussed, both quite disapproved by Philo here and by Essenes. Can you tell which type sounds more like the Essene view of Sadducee-influenced rulers and which the Essene view of Pharisee-influenced rulers? "Such are the athletes of virtue produced by a philosophy free from the pedantry of Greek wordiness, a philosophy which sets its pupils to practice themselves in laudable actions, by which the liberty which can never be enslaved is firmly established. Here we have a proof. Many are the potentates who at various occasions have raised themselves to power over the country. They differed both in nature and the line of conduct which they followed. Some of them carried their zest for outdoing wild beasts in ferocity to the point of savagery. They left no form of cruelty untried. They slaughtered their subjects wholesale, or like cooks carved them piecemeal and limb from limb whilst still alive, and did not stay their hands till justice who surveys human affairs visited them withthe same calamities. Others transformed this wild frenzy into another kind of viciousness. Their conduct showed intense bitterness, but they talked with calmness, though the mask of their milder language failed to conceal their rancorous disposition. They fawned like venomous hounds yet wrought evils irremediable and left behind them throughout the cities the unforgettable sufferings of their victims as monuments of their impiety and inhumanity. Yet none of these, neither the extremely ferocious nor the deep-eyed treacherous dissemblers, were able to lay a charge againts this congregation of Essenes or holy ones [osion] here described...." In this very partisan account, (young?) Philo shared an Essene point of view, and he may here reflect Essene views on Sadducee- and Pharisee-influenced Hasmoneans, including Alexander Jannaeus, the Qumran-view Wicked Priest. best, Stephen Goranson _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
