Russell Gm., thanks for your comments. Dierk, if you wish to offer reasons for your Agrippa II role proposal, I will consider them. Herb, but we now do have insider Essene texts with interpretations for initiates. If someone calls Elvis "The King," you do not need to recognize Elvis as your King in order to see that some do indeed call Elvis The King. Similarly, in current jargon, you need not "valorize" Essenes as the true doers of torah in order to see that surely Essenes claimed to be precisely that. Some outsider texts--understandably so, mostly at first favorable in tone--go along. Many details remain to be sorted out, but that Essenes came from Hebrew 'asah is, in my view, ineluctable. Ian, you misconstrued what I wrote. The Essene pesharim are indeed central and quite striking in this self-definition case. But there is more, as well. Such as 'asah in MMT by itself, according to Qimron and/or Strugnell, meaning doing torah. Compare Avodah--work, and temple service. Such as many other things I typed which you ignored. By the way, in 4QpPs "'ose has dropped out" in v. 10 pesher, Gaster noted; concerning "the wicked." Such as C.D. Ginsburg from 1862 ff seeing Rabbinic wordplay against the self-proclaimed doers par excellence. If the etymology were impossible, how then did numerous pre 1948 scholars see it, then have it confirmed, as if on a rare silver platter, repeatedly, in the ancient tattered remains at Qumran? How many times need one suggest that common words can obtain special specific meanings? Amoraim (from a common verb)--the only ones who speak? Amidah--something about standing? The Wall? Haredim, in awe generally, or of...HaShem/Adonai? Kabbalists, Karaites. Halakha--walking? Gnostics, Taoists, Sons of Light, Cathari. Koran--recitation in general? Muslims--submitters in general? Friends--all friends? Mandaean Natsrayya, observants. Shomerim as keepers of torah in truth. Sampsaeans. Yahad, Essene community (from the Hebrew for the number "one"), and "... hatorah 'osey hayahad...." best, Stephen Goranson [EMAIL PROTECTED] For private reply, e-mail to Stephen Goranson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.
