Dear Greg, I wish you success in Copenhagen. Yes, those were the main objections. There are others, apart from the problem of the Hasmoneans belonging to Iehoiarib (according to Josephus)a family which, as Ian put it, seems not to have been Zadokite. But I respect your wish to stop the discussion on this subject due to attacks against you on other lists, although I do not know anything about these attacks. I am not interested in getting into details). Fundamentally, I accept the idea that Hyrc may have been involved in the ideological dispute of Pharis. against Sadduccees ( a fight no High priest of the time could have possibly escaped) but I`d still like to stress that if so, it must have been of marginal interest to Hyrc. One of the main issues in all these matters is that we have to rely on Josephus. He is not particularly trustworthy in various fields, but his portrayal of Hyrc seems to me to be one of the most realistic and balanced in the entire Josephan corpus, as it doesnīt discard either his positive or negative components. Thus he seems to any unbiased reader of Josephus more like "seeker after smooth things" than what we are told in the DSS about the Tor. The same is true concerning Josephus` note that Matitiahu was of the family of Iehoiarib. I donīt see any reason why he should have misled anybody in the question of the doubts raised by the lineage of Hasmoneans starting at least with Johanan Hyrc. And considering the obsession of DSS with purity and origin, as strict preconditions of holiness, I think that the Tor`s origin must have been anything but doubtful. Ergo, he should have been the descendant of the Oniads. I also perfectly agree with Russel Gmirkinīs analysis on the Tor not possibly being a Pharisee.
Best wishes, Peter Janku For private reply, e-mail to "peter janku" <[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)
