Hi, all,
Put briefly, Russell's "facts" are not facts, and Soren's difficulties are not
difficult.
Russell begins with what "appear[s]" to indicate two distinct groups, and ends
declaring facts that undermine. Wrong, redundantly. First the analysis is
conjecture not fact. Secondly one group can have (synchronically and/or
diachronically) differences. Slavery exist in the USA? Are there more than one
group of Jews, Baptists, Muslims, Mormons, Buddhists...? Thirdly, in fact
Josephus has two groups of Essenes, marrying and non-marrying. Philo DVC 1 has
been read two ways, including that there are Essenes, broad sense,
divided into
Essenes narrower sense who live the bios praktikos (hmm, like being osey
hatorah!) and those who live the contemplative life. I hope these examples
suffice.
Soren, the Hippolytus (who divides Essenes too) ms has Essenes with one s (as
does Spanish). Please do read, when convenient, VanderKam's chapter in DSS
After 50 v2.
We have remnants of Essene literature. This many appearances is wonderful,
extraordinary, and much much more than we have for most `2000 year old
words--within decades, probably, of the birth of the name, a Hebrew
self-designation, later put into Greek spellings (Ossaioi etc.) by outsiders.
When was the first Stephen or Goranson or Soren or Holst or Russell or
Gmirkin?
In some cases less than 2000 years old, I guess. Can we hold in our hand a
manuscripts with these names used within the first few years of their origin?
Remember, osey hatorah is not in TaNaK, not in Mishnah, not in Tosefta, not in
early midrashim (except in negative lists of seven separatists, arguably, in
use, not of the collocation but the verb--a verb quite prominent in 1QS [note
the many different translations of 1QS 8:3 if i remember the # right. Of the
scholars and publications I noted--of course I count the pre and post 1948
ones. The pre 1948 ones in effect predicted it would be found. It has been
found, multiply. (The post-1948 list is growing.) This is history, in several
redundant servings, on a silver platter. One only needs now to analyse why
historians were understandably deflected to Aramaic guesses. why some ancient
tradents were disinclined to credit Essenes as the true observers of
torah, and
the like.
best
Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
"Jannaeus, His Brother Absalom, and Judah the Essene"
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