Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

  Stephen, Does any of the listed references refer specifically to Yosippon?

    This Hebrew book, even according to the latest dating, appeared five 
centuries earlier than Azariah Dei Rossi's work.

    As mentioned before, I rest my case on the dictionary's annotation. BTW 
this should not be too difficult to ascertain by anyone who has access to the 
book, can read it, and is interested enough in the subject.

     Uri Hurwitz

 



Stephen Goranson:

If I may say, because there is no consensus yet on the etymology of Essenes, 
it would be unreliable to claim that the source of the name does not appear 
in the Qumran texts, since we are not agreed on what would count as being 
present.

It may be worth noting that, before the scrolls were found, several scholars 
noted the possible etymology from the Hebrew root 'asah.

Here is some relevant bibliography:

1532 Ph. Melanchthon in J. Carion, Chronica. Wittenberg, 1532. folio68verso:
Essei / das ist / Operarii / vom wort Assa / das ist wircken.
1548 Paul Eber, Populi Iudaici Historia.
1550 The Thre Bokes of Cronicles... London. ...to declare the
straitnesse and severitie of lyfe with the dede, and would be called
Essey, that is workers or doers, for Assa, whence the name commeth,
sygnifieth to worke...
1557 David Chytraeus [Kochhafe], Onomasticon. Explained Essenes as "factores 
legis," doers of the Law.
1559 M. Flacius Illyricus et al. Ecclesiastica Hist., Magdeburg
Centuries. Basel.
1560 Cooper's Chronicle, London.
?1566 M. Victorinum ed, Jerome Opera. Rome, Ep. 22 note.
[1573-75 Azariah dei Rossi. Me'or Enayim. Mantua.]
1583 J. Scaliger, De Emendatione Temporum. on hallucination.
1605 Scaliger, Elenchus Trihaeresii. different view.
1619 Sixtinus Amama ed. De Sectis Iudaicis..., Arnheim.
1674 J. Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, on Lk. xv, 7.
1680 Johann H. Willemer. Dissertatio...Essenis....
1699 J. Leusden. Philologus.
1703 J. Triglandius ed., Trium Scriptorum...Judaeorum Sectis...Delft.
107: factores legis.
1743-4 J.C. Happach. De Essaeorum Nomine. Coburg.
1745 J. U. Tresenreuter
1748 Joh. Carpzov.
1839 Isaak Jost, Die Essaer..., Israelitische Annalen 19, 145-7.
1858 S. Cohn; David Oppenheim, MGWJ 7, 270-1; 272-3.
1862 L. Landsberg, Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthum 26/33, 459.
1864 C. D. Ginsburg, The Essenes [& Cyclopedia arts.].
1875 J. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians...appx.
1881 A. B. Gottlober, ...B$M KT H(SS(N(R )W (SS((R  HaBoker Or [Warsaw]
170-1.
1881 Rev. Et. J. 3, 295.
1894 Kruger, Theologische Quartalschrift 76 [&1887, 69]
1938 H.M.J. Loewe in Encyclopedia Britannica (14th) 718. (includes 'asah as a 
possible etymology, soon before the Qumran discoveries).


Stephen Goranson
www.duke.edu/~goranson

________________________________________

The Book of Yosippon (mistakenly) replaced Josephus' Essenes with Hebrew
(not Aramaic) Hasidim. For the start of Aramaic guesses, see Azariah dei
Rossi, Me'or Enayin (Mantua, 1573-1575).

Stephen Goranson
www.duke.edu/~goranson

  





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