RE: [Megillot] R. Arav review of Y. Hirschfeld, Qumran in Context

[Dierk van den Berg]

[quote:]   Rami Arav reviewed Yizhar Hirschfeld, Qumran in Context: Reassessing the Archaeological Evidence (2004) in AJS [Association of Jewish Studies] Review 29.2 (2005) 373-6.   [snip]   And (also p. 375): "Placing Qumran in the context of Herodian estates would place the DSS out of context--and indeed this is what they are in this book!   [end quote]     First of all - as all interested should know in the meantime - the location has no distinct relation to the scrolls, of course disregarding the known, forced "written evidence"-based constructions of the past. Moreover, the context of the younger texts, reflecting the present of the yachad, esp. the pesharim, explicitely refer to the eve of the Herodian Kingship - the chance to criticize this relatively new position in a scholarly environment was indeed given on Ian's Scrolls Forum a year ago in the thread on Hyrcanos II as (high questionable) ToR. Sorry if most of the subscribed scholars simply failed to participated in Greg Doudna's ingenuity on Mr. Hyrcan...   See it as an ultimate promise, Stephen - the days of the old engrafted 2nd c. BCE senarios are gone, for stillborn - simply because of their natural lack of integration ability into the religio-political continuity of exiled rests that revert' during the whole 2nd Temple period.   _dierk