Gentlemen,
I've never really understood the ardor with which the exact
location of a "city" near the "dead sea" is prosecuted.
Based on reasonable agreement by several sources, we know
that the Essenes *probably* lived scattered about several
locations.
It does not seem important, nor likely,
Dear George,
It is quite possible that Pliny's source _believed_ the Essenes practiced
adoption, and also that they lived without money. (Some scrolls and some
classical sources describe turning funds over to a treasurer for the
community - but other scrolls of course document private ow
By way of footnoting my previous posting, see Strabo 16.2.42 for the Dead
Sea emergence of asphalt being accompanied by bubbles like boiling water (cf.
his "boiling rivers" of 16.2.44).
See Philo, On Abraham 141; Josephus, Jewish War (=BJ) 4.483 on the
still-visible signs of Sodom's des
Russell Gmirkin,
I like your "pragmatic" thinking about whether the Essenes
could have really survived PURELY through adoption.
I would think it is easy to see that this IS unlikely. But
I think it is ALSO easy to see that a society like this would
have been a natural "collection point" for chil
George Brooks notes:
>>I like your "pragmatic" thinking about whether the Essenes could
have really survived PURELY through adoption. I would think it is easy
to see that this IS unlikely.<<
The Shaker movement in the USA lasted for many years solely on the
basis of adoptions, as all sect member
Dear George Brooks,
About all one can conclude from from Pliny is that Pliny's source thought
the Essenes practices adoption. First, this was likely a misunderstanding.
One of the duties of the Mebaqqer of certain scrolls was the instruction of
youths entering the yachad. He was to be t
Pliny puts the Essenes and the town of Ein Gedi near Masada. Dio
Chrysostom locates the "blessed city of the Essenes" near Sodom. These
descriptions are not necessarily mutually exclusive since Strabo 16.2.44
locates Masada near Sodom:
"Many other evidences are produced to show that
Dear Stephen,
You have stated numerous times that the Ein Gedi site excavated by Hirschfeld was
too small and too late. I'll disregard the notion that it is too late, as the range
of pottery is first and second century CE, but your claim that it is too small needs
clarification.
Joseph Patric
