Biblical Hebrew Forum

[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.

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.

Dave Washburn

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