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  • From: dwashbur AT nyx.net
  • To: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] How Long was Hebrew a Living Language?
  • Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:03:40 -0700



On 31 Aug 2009 at 23:06, James Read wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Quoting dwashbur AT nyx.net:
>
> >
> >
> > On 31 Aug 2009 at 7:42, James Read wrote:
> >
> >> Yeah,
> >>
> >> I think you're right David. There seems to have been quite a lot
> of
> >> this kind of thing. Too many conclusions from so little evidence.
> We
> >> basically have a library of manuscripts kept in a safe location.
> It
> >> could well have been just one very zealous individual hoping to
> keep
> >> the scrolls safe from some kind of disaster.
> >>
> >> I think some have even suggested that this may have been an
> early
> >> Christian fleeing from a besieged Jerusalem that put the
> scrolls
> >> there
> >> in a safe place. Some of the texts even seem to have Christian
> ideas
> >> in them. Like the wicked priest and the righteous teacher. I
> know
> >> there is a lot of debate over who the wicked priest is and who
> the
> >> righteous teacher is but it has to be admitted that there are
> >> parallels to be found with Christian teachings.
> >
> > James,
> > The parallels are such as might be found in most any
> offshoot-Judaic
> > sect, especially with
> > regard to morality etc. The whole wicked priest thing is so vague
> > that I don't base anything
> > at all on it; the pure fact is, we haven't a clue what they
> meant.
> >
>
> Yeah. Sure. It has also been suggested that this may be a reference
> to
> Maccabean usurpment. I suppose any theory is as good as any as
> nothing
> is conclusive. In an attempt to get the discussion back on track
> about
> the usage of Hebrew though it certainly would help in the matter of
> dating the DSS is we knew who was being spoken about.

Rather than look at such documents, I prefer to think about the corpus as a
whole. Given
the general prevalence of biblical texts, the frequent archaizing even to the
point of using
pre-exilic script, and the total lack of "common" documents, I think we're
looking at
somebody's collection of various books that they tried to hide around the
time of the Roman
war.

> > As for the idea that this was a single person, Christian or
> > otherwise, fleeing Jerusalem to try
> > and keep a corpus of books safe, I can't go that way. If we had
> > found a moderate number of
> > documents in one or two caves, maybe. 800 documents in 11 caves?
> I
> > think not.
>
> Sure. I see what your saying. That's a lot of documents for one
> person
> to carry right? And why didn't he put them all in one cave? So is
> your
> guess a small Hebrew speaking community living in isolation?

Nope. I lean toward Golb's idea of somebody's library, possibly even the
Jerusalem
Temple's, that some group tried to save from the Roman destruction. I won't
go to the wall
for it, but it's the explanation that makes the most sense to me.

Dave Washburn

http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur




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