DSS.950124 Minutes, Dead Sea Scrolls class, 24 Jan. 1995
University of Pennsylvania, Religious Studies 225, Robert Kraft
Glen Aduana & Clare Bayard, recorders [PESHER by RAK = B*B]
[Clarification requests to cbayard@sas.upenn.edu (firebrat)]

[pre-PESHER: It is recorded on the heavenly tablets that the council of
the gods (see Psalm 82.1) has often debated creaturely "free will" --
whether to permit the illusion or not. Beliar's excesses required
suppression (note Genesis 6.1-4). Nevertheless, to promote a more
congenial public image in contrast to that insinuated by the speakers of
smooth things, the council has mandated occasional "lapses," especially to
avoid damaging or dampening the inspired spirit of promising young
children of light. Thus it happens that the following record has been
inscribed by the finger of the most ancient, not as an example for
emulation but as a monument to righteous instructive irreverence. It has
been decreed to be the lot of the Watcher B*B(TM Microsoft) to oversee
such matters in his role of earthly apocalyptic liaison.]
 
PSUEDEPIGRAPHA FRAGMENT #225
(attributed to Pliny the Youngest and Esdras the Fourth)

And so upon the 24th day of the first month of the one thousand, nine
hundred and ninety-fifth year of our [tetragrammaton], Bob did call into
existence the Dead Sea Scrolls Class #3 from random matter at one hour and
thirty-one minutes past noon. And a tenth of those he summoned were lifted
to the knife -- "Thou shalt not address questions to Me over the Net which
thou couldst have solved thyself," He thundered, and the rivers and the
High Rises ran red with blood. [PESHER: check the sources at your elbow
before crying out for a hand.] Those saved through the covenant born from
His mercy were spared, and assembled in the tiny cubicle, there to be
educated by the Bob revealer Himself. Bob encouraged His children to suck
from the Tree of Knowledge that is VanderKam and Fitzmyer. Bob spake
kindly unto His children, saying "Get thee to the gopher, and there wilt
thou find those tomes which are yet ripe for thy criticism, having not
been claimed by other members of the community." [PESHER (poetic genre): 
Sign up for the required review, / one to a book or possibly two.]
	
At 1:37 by the hourglass, Bob likened the labor of minute-taking to "The
Dating Game," and proceeded to attempt pairing among his children. He took
Chanan, whose name he had only just created, from Karen's rib, for she
needed a companion for the sixteenth of February. [PESHER: The assignments
for minute-taking were appropriately expanded; check the gopher.] He
encouraged His children to glean knowledge from Fitzmyer's well-organized
tome <title>The Dead Sea Scrolls: Major Publications and Tools for Study</>
(Scholars Press 1990). The children were shown a glossy panorama
photographic print of a conference in bygone years portraying several
handlers of the Scrolls, which for their continuing joy, Bob has scanned
onto His Heavenly Homepage. 

As the minute of 1:42 became, Bob drew forth a discussion concerning the
variously designated Damascus Document/Covenant/Rule, Zadokite
Fragment(s), or simply CD or CDC (Cairo Damascus Covenant, or similarly)
by reading from its opening lines. This Document, of which fragments have
now appeared at Qumran, was first found nearly a century past, in a Cairo
synagogue's forgotten geniza. A geniza, literally "treasury," is a
sanctified collecting place for revered materials requiring special ritual
disposal. This synagogue, built upon the site which its tradition claimed
as the landing-place for the basket of baby Moses, had been a Karaite
Jewish locale. Around the year 800 CE, Christian leaders reported the
discovery of scrolls in a cave in the area of Jerusalem. The Karaites were
emerging at this time, and may have had access to such cave discoveries as
well. The recognition of older writings may have fueled their atavistic
opposition to traditionalist rabbis. Bob, in His omniscience, drew a
parallel between the Karaites and Christianity's Protestants with
reference to the desire to recapture the pristine past.  Karaites today
survive in small number. One community is imagined in Los Angeles, in the
200s block of Sunset Boulevard, maybe others in Egypt and Turkey, and at
least one in Jerusalem.  It is rumored that Elvis is among them. 

The CDC document refers to its authors as the "sons of Zadok," hence the
name "Zadokite Fragment(s)." The priesthood of Zadok was caught up in the
internal struggles of Judaism over who holds legitimate authority. Much of
the polemical tone that appears in many of the DSS is already found in the
Damascus Document in the earliest recoverable phase of the history of that
group, where the group is identified with "Damascus." Bob pronounced that
insofar as claims of legitimacy for community leadership and related
matters go, timing, support and location are often more important than
presumed "legal" legitimacy. [PESHER: A bird in the hand finds it easier
to fly.  Might makes history. Possession is the better part of valor.]

The Damascus Document assumes a division of outlook or activity. It refers
to a group of people named Israel and a sanctuary. The people are punished
for their unfaithfulness, but then God remembers the covenant, and a
"remnant" of Israel is saved.  The "prophetic" passage in Jeremiah
31.31-34 is recalled, although Sigrid suggested that Bob's children read
the whole context. The idea of "the LORD" making a "new covenant" agreement
is prevalent in the DSS. Bob warned the cowering RELS225ites that the
modern notion of a prophet as predicter is simplistic; a prophet in
ancient Israel is basically one who speaks forth, warns, cajoles,
condemns, calls to repent. "The prophet is the conscience of the people!"
saith Bob. 

The reference to "the LORD" in the Jeremiah passage became a burning thorn
in the side of the collective class. The Hebrew text contains the
"tetragrammaton" --"the four-letter word for God's special name." To avoid
profaning the name, special devices were developed, such as substituting
the general term "Lord" (Adonai) when the text contains the
tetragrammaton. In some English Bible translations, "LORD" represents the
tetragrammaton, as distinct from "Lord" for other terms that convey that
meaning. Some moderns have attempted to represent the supposed
pronunciation of the tetragrammaton (YHWH) by vocalizing the Hebrew as
"Jehovah" (taking the vowels from Adonai/Edonai) or "Yahweh" (more common
in scholarly circles).  A Greek DSS fragment even represents the
tetragrammaton with the Greek IAO (or JAO). In generations of copying the
scripts, scribes have tried to preserve the sanctity of the
tetragrammaton. Paleo-Hebrew has even been used in DSS "normal" Hebrew MSS
(= manuscripts) to represent the sacred name. These practices all seem to
be motivated by the commandment not to take the name "in vain" (Exodus
20.7 // Deuteronomy 5.11), especially by building a protective "fence"
that prohibits speaking or profanely writing it. On the bathroom humor
side (pardon us, B*B), some Greek scribes tackled the problem of
pronouncing the name by transliterating the tetragrammaton as
though it were Greek letters "pi-iota-pi-iota," or "pipi."

Regarding the aquisition of general knowledge relevant to the course, Bob
hurled a twin thunderbolt to the table around which His children were
gathered. When this thunderbolt dissipated, remaining on the table were
Bob's endorsement of two reference books on Judaism. These were the Jewish
Encyclopedia, which is almost a century old, and was written with much
involvement from reform Jewish scholars; and the Encyclopedia Judaica,
written in the 1970s with participation from Israeli scholars clothed in 
leisure suits of sackcloth. 

Dating, not in relation to pairing students for minutes, but to estimating
approximate ages of documents like the DSS and CDC, has been estimated
especially through radiocarbon dating and paleography, or the study of
ancient handwriting. Paleography has a margin of error of about three
generations, and is extremely important for the DSS and like documents.
The CDC material discovered in the Old Cairo synagogue is dated relatively
late, paleographically, and thus must in fact be a copy of something
earlier, since the DSS fragments are centuries earlier, although how many
generations of copies it has gone through cannot be deduced. 

4QMMT, or "Some of the Deeds of the Torah," may be close to being an
original (if it is a foundation document of the DSS group) although the
preserved fragments come from more than one copy. Many Egyptian papyri are
non-literary original documents and thus are unique. 
	
As the Heavenly Clock reached 2:34, Bob ignited the television screen, and
the supplicants viewed the remainder of the NOVA special on the DSS. The
sad demise of Strugnell was chronicled, and the children wept. A new
proposal was introduced with a Brooklyn accent from a black beard: perhaps
the writers of the DSS were Sadducees, and not Essenes, and therefore from
the mainstream of Judaism. The video continued with a challenge to the
opinion that the buildings at Qumran had anything to do with the people
who left the scrolls, and concluded with such Revelations as "Who wrote
the DSS?  The evidence is not conclusive."

Six minutes before the hour, and thus four minutes overtime, Bob banished
his children into the flurries commencing on the dirty street behind the
Wingdom of Duhring. 

[post-PESHER: This is NOT a contest; no wagering allowed; do NOT attempt 
to do this in your homes! (Letterman ala B*B, with Fear and Trembling)]

//end of dss.950124//