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orion-list On one aspect of Doudna's new essay



Hello orion list,
		
	I have read Greg Doudna's new essay on the 
orion web site. This note is not a review of the entire 
essay (I wish FMC were on list to join the conversation 
with Rochelle and Greg!). Rather, this note is intended to 
point out, again, that *one* of the arguments used by Greg 
Doudna is wrong, when applied to Qumran. He asserts, for his
"one-generation" scroll production proposal, that artifacts 
ordinarily are most plentiful from the time just 
before the destruction of a site. He adds that libraries 
have most books from recent years. This argument---or its 
two variants--is mistaken when applied, as he attemps to 
apply it, to Qumran.
	Qumran was not destroyed in circa 63 BC. Rather, 
Qumran was destroyed in circa 68 AD--that is the only time 
which ended the habitation there of Second Temple 
period Jewish inhabitants. Furthermore, we do not know what 
scrolls--and of what ages-- may have been taken away from 
Qumran by Essenes and others before the Romans came (or 
after the Romans left, for that matter).
	Also, I have worked in many libraries. I own a very 
small library. The plain fact is that not all libraries 
have the most books from the last year. 
	So, whatever one makes of Greg Doudna's essay 
vis-a-vis paleography dating, his argument based on 
archaeology is mistaken.


stephen goranson
goranson@duke.edu

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