Corpus-Paul

[Jack Kilmon <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

"Jeffrey B. Gibson" wrote:
> 
> Jack Kilmon wrote:
> 
> > Chris Cutler wrote:
> > > My suggestion was roundly dismissed by James Harding in his reply (31
> > > March):
> > >
> > > "The possibilities outlined below by Chris Cutler have I think been
> > > suggested before, and fairly univerally dismissed. It would be
> > > difficult to maintain that Damascus was a standard cognomen for
> > > Qumran, since it is only characteristic of the D corpus of material..."
> >
> > The issue, imo, is that it *is* characteristic of the "D corpus"
> > of texts.  My reading of CD (6:5-19; 7:18-20; 8:21; 8:35) makes
> > me see "The Land of Damascus" as the "Region of the New Covenant"
> > which could have meant not only Qumran...if indeed Qumran was an
> > Essene settlement....but the entire area of the West coast of the
> > Dead Sea.
> 
> Jack,
> 
> Your message is a bit puzzling. It seems to be an assertion *against*  
> James Harding's
> claim about the characteristics of the D material. But isn't what you say 
> and what
> Harding claims exactly the same thing? Or am I missing something here?.

I think agreement or disagreement rests on whether the Qumran site was
an Essene
settlement.  The agreement is that I do not believe this fortress was
code-named
"Damascus."  The disagreement may be that the entire area may have been
called
"The Land of Damascus."  In spite of a consensus of scholarly opinion,
there
is no real hard evidence connecting the Qumran site with the DSS other
than
a proximity to a few of the caves and a couple inkwells.  Neither is
convincing.

There is some suggestion that the "Jesus People" and Essenes quartered
together
in the same section of the upper city.  It could be possible that they
did the
same in the "Land of Damascus."  Both of these Enochian/Daniel subsets
rising
from the ashes of the Maccabaean war and the Hasmonean political
spectrum had
things in common...as the DSS corpus relates in shared vorlage..but may
have
differed on eschatological matters.  What form of communication they had
with
one another, if any, we will probably never know.

Jack
-- 
______________________________________________

taybutheh d'maran yeshua masheecha am kulkon

Jack Kilmon
jkilmon AT historian.net

http://www.historian.net