[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: orion Essenes = 'osey hatorah?



stephen goranson wrote:

> First, Hebrew is a more likely source for self-designation of Essenes,
> as the torah is in Hebrew. Second, both of these Aramaic proposals can
> be shown to have arisen in the history of scholarship as
> misunderstandings, misunderstandings, e.g., of Maccabees and of De Vita
> Contemplativa. Third,  I do not think 4QAramaic Levi does include this
> Aramaic root. (In the orion archives, this was discussed by Robert
> Kugler, Michael Stone, and others.) Even if one concludes it does
> appear in that little fragment, that is merely once.

Another consideration:  if 4QAramaic Levi does contain the root, does
Levi's likely place in the entire collection tell us anything about
whether the presence of a root is likely to shed light on the self
designation of the group?  I tend to associate 4QAramaic Levi with
Aramaic Enoch as literature produced prior to the distinctive body of
literature unique to the scroll collection, of a related perspective but
perhaps inherited by the group that produced the later work.  Should one
look to such a document for the self-designation of the group that
produced the distinctive body of literature?  Does the preference for
Hebrew in that body of literature suggest anything about the language of
any potential self-designation -- aside from the fact that the Torah is
in Hebrew?

David Suter
Saint Martin's College

-- 
David W. Suter, Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies
Saint Martin's College, Lacey, WA 98503
dsuter@crc.stmartin.edu
For private reply, e-mail to "David W. Suter" <dsuter@crc.stmartin.edu>
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to majordomo@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il with
the message: "unsubscribe Orion." For more information on the Orion Center
or for Orion archives, visit our web site http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.