Stephen, I did think there was at least one ancient case of Essene with a single -s-. Thanks for putting that straight.
Obviously the mere fact that we know about Essenes at all is a wonderful coincidence of survival of sources - I quite agree. But this in itself could be an argument working both ways,couldn't it? Just because one surviving set of texts (over against the many more lost forever) may have the word for Essenes in them, doesn't have to mean that this is the case. The origin of the term (be it as self-designation or nickname) may easily be lost forever - as indeed are probably the first Goranson (the son of a Swede called Göran, I assume) and the first Holst (according to family lore: a guy from the northern German province of Holstein, once part of Denmark). all the best Soren -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] På vegne af [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sendt: 22. april 2006 11:15 Til: [email protected] Emne: Re: [Megillot] SV: osey hattora Hi, all, ... 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" _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
