Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Schiffman appears to see it this way too: Although talmudic sources consider this “fence” (siyyag in mishnaic Hebrew) a positive feature of rabbinic halakhah, the authors of the Zadokite Fragments oppose this approach, not only because they disagreed with the specific laws that resulted but also bec...

I've been wondering if the reference to the "builders of the wall" in the Damascus Document could be another attack against the Pharisees (like the possible wordplay of seekers of "smooth things" or halaqot, as VanderKam notes: https://books.google.com/books?id=i2i5haDHAygC&p...

Charlesworth also notes this "viper" similarity: ...Luke and Matthew recorded that the Baptizer called the multitudes -many among them Pharisees and Sadducees, according to Matthew- a "brood of vipers" (Luke 3:7 = Matt 3:7). Did he make up this term, or did he inherit it from som...

maryhelena wrote: However, unless these interpretations seek to understand the DSS in it's own time and place i.e. the historical situation that prevailed up to the end of the Hasmonean dynasty - one is simply blowing in the wind...Interpretations, to have value, need to show relevance to a politica...

Following the reference to the Wicked Priest "swallowing" the Teacher of Righteousness and his followers, the Habakkuk Pesher goes on to interpret another verse that mentions blood and violence (Hab. 2:17) and ties it to the Wicked Priest and his destruction of the poor (one of the self-de...

maryhelena wrote: Re Greg Doudna's identification of the Teacher of Righteousness as Hyrcanus II and Antigonus as the 'wicked priest'. Historically, re Josephus, Antigonus denied Hyrcanus the High Priesthood via cutting off his ear (i.e. he 'killed', if you will, any hope Hyrcanus had of ever reclai...

In the big picture I agree with Doudna that the Kittim in some of the DSS are the Romans and that the “head of Greek kings" in the Damascus Document at least refers to a Roman emperor (if not Augustus, as he suggests). In other words, we both see some of the DSS as being written in the imperial...

In one of Neil's links above Doudna responds to a question from a commenter about the prohibition against niece marriage in the DSS that I also had when I read the article maryhelena linked to. It appears that Doudna is consequently willing to see (some of) the DSS as being written as late as 4 BCE....

maryhelena wrote: The DSS does not, as far as I’m aware, have the Wicked Priest executing the Teacher of Righteousness. This came up in another thread, and I wrote that this is arguably in 1QpHab col. 11, which is translated by Vermes as: This concerns the Wicked Priest who pursued the Teacher of Ri...

Yeah, that has to be the sense, because he applies it to Vespasian because he was "appointed emperor in Judea," and that happened in 69 CE, three years after the war started. So it would have to mean "about" 66 CE, and if it is applicable to 69 CE it could be applicable to 63 CE,...