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Re: orion-list Essenes at Qumran: A Reality Check




	I find myself in the unusual circumstance of having promised (don't
tell her, it's a surprise) to write a sestina for a scrapbook for my
Mother's birthday. It is due soon, so I will be brief now.

	Rochelle Altman mentioned vehemence, "Fictional Documents and
linguistic impossibilities," and, primarily, water, in an argument about
4000 people, an argument already recognized, in effect, as a straw man
argument before I opened my mail. Furthermore, if Qumran could not have
4000 people, how could Yizhar Hirschfeld's smaller site, which, in any
case, was not inhabited until later? The area has been well surveyed.
Check, is there any real alternative site?

	I already responded to Rochelle's 5 criteria for "tags," and
provided examples which show otherwise, examples which support the
etymology from 'asah. I did not originate that etymology. If it were
impossible, Melanchthon, Kochafe, Flacius, Cooper, Althofer, Boetticher,
Jost, Landsberg, Oppenheim, Lightfoot, Ginsburg, Brownlee, and VanderKam
probably wouldn't have pursued it. And the self-designation is in the
ancient scrolls.

	What I suggest we consider, when there is occasion, is the history
of scholarship, because that may help to explain some declarations of
"impossibility."

best,
Stephen Goranson
goranson@duke.edu



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