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orion osiotes & law-observing; Enoch 108; Essenes trans-Jordan



Hello, list readers,

1. I've been reading a little about Greek osios and osiotes, following up
references in the Lexicon of Bauer-Gingrich, in Philo Lexicon, etc. I ask
if anyone knows of more recent studies. I am interested especially in the
sense of divine law (observance) given for these words. Every Good Man is
Free 91 gives this in apposition with Essaioi, usually translated holy
ones, but why not as law-observers? The uses of osioi and anosioi ioudaioi
in papyri from the time of the Trajan-period revolt in Alexandria are
interesting. Of course I'm wondering about Philo's source. E. Puech, one of
the strongest defenders of Aramaic XSY does cite one Egyptian inscription
(La Croyance des Esseniens en la vie future, 1993, 23: CIS II 1 141; KAI
269), and I can understand why the approximate analog with Hasidim arose as
a proposal, but, without any internal or external linkage of that Eastern
Aramaic with Essenes, it seems not plausible. It may be interesting that
Philo's Apology uses osiotes, and it may share an (Alexandrian? Stoic
kathekon?) source with part of Contra Apion 2 on law observance with Essene
links. And doesn't therapeutae as servants/worshippers (not healers) of God
better parallel observers of law than holy ones? Anyway: any comments or
recent bibliography on osios/osiotes?

2. Thanks, David Suter for comment on Enoch 108. I guess the burden of
proof you suggest accords with the default position advocated in Robert
Kraft's writing on pseudepigrapha; and you know Enoch better than I do.
But, in this case, would it be better to assume neither a Jewish or a
Christian provenance a priori?  If this chapter were a Christian addition,
wouldn't one expect something more obviously Christian about it? You say
the dualism seems supercessionist to you. Be that as it may, is
supercessionism (indeed found in some Christian texts) absent from all
Qumran texts? Is wheat and tares solely a Christian image?  Admittedly, it
doesn't help my (and Flusser's and Charles') Essene-identification
suggestion that this chapter is not identified at Qumran, though it is
merely one brief chapter, more easily lost than a long book. Perhaps the
usage in 108:2 represents a stage in the generic to specific evolution of
the name.
	Thanks, Jim West, for bibliography, though, by a quick look, these,
other than M. Black who I cited, have little or nothing on ch. 108. So I'm
still interested in other treatments of 108.

3. Dierk Vanderberg, perhaps I did not write clearly enough. I must say
that I am not sure I fully understand what you wrote. (Perhaps your Dutch
humor did not convey clearly in your English writing.) And the two books
you cited are not available at the library today. And I did mistakenly
switch the two spellings of Kohlit.
	I do think "land of Damascus" is in North Jordan/South Syria.
Joseph Baumgarten recently in his DJD edition gave some support for a
literal [non-Qumran, non-Babylon] interpretation. Of course I do not accept
R. Bergmeier's proposal that "Essenes" derives from "Gerasenes"! I would
have thought it needless for me to more than hint that I accept a different
etymology! :-)
	And some of the sources I noted are indeed ambiguous; some may turn
out to be irrelevant. But there several sources, not to repeat them all
here, which point to some Essenes/Ossenes living at some time(s) east of
the Jordan. For example, to add one treatment along these lines, written
before the Cairo Damascus publication: Nachman Isaak Weinstein, Beitraege
zur Geschichte der Essaeer (Vienna: Ch. D. Lippe, 1892). If it makes
sense--as I think it does--to research Essenes in Qumran and in Jerusalem,
why not explore possible Essene indications in Jordan?

best wishes,
Stephen Goranson


For private reply, e-mail to stephen goranson <goranson@duke.edu>
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