An enormous quantity of words have been expended concerning the relationship of the Qumran texts to the 'Essenes'. Yet as has been noted by Philip Davies, there seems to be no explicit critical definition of what, exactly, 'Essenes' means in the midst of all of the verbiage. Therefore, as an exercise in critical thinking, what would readers of Orion propose as a good, succinct, critical definition of 'Essenes'?
--is there a single critical definition that can adequately capture and describe the way 'Essenes' has been used in most mainstream Dead Sea Scrolls discourse (i.e. can the underlying assumed definition of the term be made explicit in a way that reasonable people will agree accurately characterizes its usage?) --or is this a case, as commonly in dictionary entries, in which there will be 1, 2, 3... meanings, ranked in order of prevailing use, but actually quite differing senses depending on context? --or will the attempt at arriving at a critical definition instead result in the awareness that not all parties mean the same thing at all by the word 'Essenes'?--and for purposes of improved clarity in future discussions some new definition or definition may need to be intentionally constructed, or reconstructed, anew in senses departing from common or prevailing usages of the word? So--an open question--addressed to anyone on this list who speaks of 'the Essenes': what is the definition of 'Essenes' in the discourse? Greg Doudna For private reply, e-mail to "Greg Doudna" <[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. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
