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  • From: RSBrenchley AT aol.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: mitzvot in Galatians?
  • Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 17:44:04 EDT


Liz Fried writes:

<< The Dead Sea Scroll community did reject the temple and its
priesthood. They did not reject sacrifice per se.
The temple scroll indicates the communities high regard for
the temple and the sacrificial system >>

What I see going on here is a fissiparous Judaism, where the idea of the
Temple is fundamental, but it is controlled by one or two groups (Pharisees
and Sadducees). To the extent that other groups oppose these, they end up
opposing the actually existing Temple; they either spiritualise it (John
2:21) or develop a 'fantasy Temple' (the Temple Scroll). The concept
survives, but in a new form. Similarly with sacrifice; the church
spiritualised it, and something of the sort was surely going on within the
Dead Sea Scrolls community. What do you make of Otto Betz' article Was John
the Baptist an Essene' (Hershel Shanks, ed., Understanding the Dead Sea
Scrolls, SPCK, 1993)? I feel he goes a little too far in the Essene
identification, but he writes (p. 211), 'The Temple's offerings of animals
were replaced [among the Essenes] by the 'offerings of the lips' (that is,
prayers), and works of the Law'. This seems to make sense in the context of a
dissident community, and this type of trend would then lay the foundation for
post-70 developments.

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley AT aol.com




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