Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Herman Meester <crazymulgogi AT gmail.com>]

Dear Stephen,
As a matter of fact, I'm not an expert on those texts of course, I
just recommended Golb's book because I enjoyed reading it. I could try
to answer some of your questions, but I feel not qualified at all.

> Are you unconcerned that the book includes factual errors and that it fails 
> to
> provide any real evidence that all 900 or so partly extant Qumran scrolls 
> were
> brought from Jerusalen during the First Revolt?

I didn't suspect any of those when I was reading the book, which I did twice.

> As for "sect," are you saying that is is OK with you to entertain 
> associating
> Qumran with the school/"heresy" Pharisees (in the neutral sense of the 
> term),
> but that is not OK with you to entertain associating the Essenes?

There may be all kinds of texts with all kinds of origins. If they
were hidden to escape destruction in Jerusalem anno 70, texts
expressing a lot of the availably points of view in Jerusalem.

Do you
> dismiss the Qumran text anti-Pharisee polemics found by the majority of 
> Qumran
> scholars? And, which Qumran scrolls, if any, do you consider Pharisee texts?

If there are anti-Pharisee texts, they form just a part of this entire
collection. If the collection were uniform in content you would have a
point, but it's not. When the Romans are coming, people stop
quarreling for a while, and they let their scrolls be collected and
have someone hide them somewhere dry and safe!
At least, I would, I'd hate my books to be burnt.

Regards,
Herman