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

orion-list Female Skeletons - Grave Controversy?



I was thinking of making this a side note to Mr. Hindley, but
since I will be away from my email for a whole weekend, and
since there seems to be a certain amount of "perseveration" over
the "female skeleton" issue, I thought I would send this to
the Orion system:

Hindley said:
I am not so sure how to interpret any 
> regulations > the scrolls contain regarding women, due to
the cemetery  controversies.

Response to Hindley:  You seem genuinely interested in the
possibility  that the Essenes derive their organizational inspiration
from military social structures.  But let me offer one clarification,
which is a repeat of something I have said before:

If the Essene faction or factions that "discouraged" marriage
lived with women as their non-familial "sisters" and "mothers"
(as Jesus said, in Heaven there is no marriage), then we can
conclude ****NOTHING**** regarding the Essene character
of Qumran if we find females buried nearby.  It is simply an
"oh well" finding.

The Therapeutae of Egypt prove that some women wanted to
be part of a spiritual commune.  Several writers say that there
were Essenes who married.  And the Jesus "commune" clearly
had an amazingly high degree of female involvement in their
funding, and wanderings and writings.

To find female skeletons is a non-event.  To find a cemetery
with ONLY male skeletons would be of interest..... but it does
not mean finding female skeletons means the bodies were not
of the Essene or DSS communities, or that nearby settlements
were not Essene or DSS.

Maybe I'll wait a month or two before I repeat this particular
refrain....

George Brooks
Tampa, FL
For private reply, e-mail to George Brooks <george.x.brooks@juno.com>
----------------------------------------------------------------
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.