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RE: orion-list Bedouin or Essene Beads?



Dear Prof. Zias,

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I was actually supporting your
position over against Prof. Zangenberg. The conclusion (from other
considerations) that the graves with the beads are not Essene tallies
with the fact that from QL there are reasons to think that Essene
women would not wear bracelets (viz 1Enoch's account of the fallen
watchers' role in the revelation of jewelry making to women).

Prof. Suter,

Of course 1 Enoch is pre-Essene. I did not imply otherwise. But, that
1 Enoch's account of the entry of evil into the world (BW) was in some
sense "canonical" at Qumran, since the priestly community there
belonged to a broader stream of Judaism for whom Enoch was an
important apocalyptic figure, is also (to my mind) not in doubt.
The majority of us believe that the Qumran site and the scrolls in the
caves are Essene. The issue which J. Zias' work addresses is whether
or not the Essene movement at Qumran was all-male/celibate. (If it is,
then obviously that supports the Essene hypothesis). But there are
those who still believe the Essene hypothesis , who think that
Josephus et al were simply wrong about the celibacy thing. So my point
is simply to support Zias' anthropological/archaeological discussion -
those female graves with beads in them are unlikely to be be Essene
because, on other grounds, we have good reason to suppose that Essene
women would not wear such ornamentation.

yours
Crispin Fletcher-Louis


For private reply, e-mail to dth0chf <C.H.T.Fletcher-Louis@durham.ac.uk>
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