Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

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