To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: targums (clarification)
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 19:53:23 +0200
At 08.58 21/05/99 -0500, Jack wrote:
>I'm not helping my own argument for an Aramaic common language for
>1st century Palestine with this question...but bolstering the opposite view
>is sometimes the best way to come to terms. I think it was Father
>Murphy-O'Connor (sorry, I'm not at home in the comfort of my library)
>who proposed that the Essenes essentially packed up their toothbrushes
>and moved back to Judea from Syria following the victorious Maccabaean
>Revolt. If this is true, it could explain the Aramaic texts, including Job.
There seems of course as much evidence for the Murphy-O'Connor theory as
there is for the Essene Hypothesis: none!