RelSt 225 (Dead Sea Scrolls) Class Minutes #3 (9/12/96)
by Ben Fogelman with Tamar Lasson

New Book published called "New Translation of Scrolls" by M. Wise, E. 
Cook, and M. Abegg.

Dr. Kraft's homepage can connect you to ccat.gopher and then to online 
reviews

**also check the minutes from spring 1995 because they will often
contain further information about the issues discussed in class 
including problems with the CD-ROM

Questions

1)  What languages were spoken in Palestine at the time of the scrolls?

	Many questions have no simple answer, and this is one
	Traditional scholarship works with what survived and apart from 
          the DSS, only a small body of semitic works 
          from the period have survived
		Hebrew and Aramaic are semitic languages
		The Persian empire spread its language as it power grew	
			the primary language of the empire was Aramaic
	The Hellenistic empire does not really establish linguistic 
          superiority over all parts or strata of that empire
		the Hellenistic (Greek) empire splits into two sections
			Seleukid - Asia Minor area; borders hard to protect
			Ptolemaic - Egypt; borders easy to protect
	Parthia is a growing power in the eastern areas that replaces (by 
          successfully resisting/expelling the Seleukid presence) the
          Persian empire in the Persian Gulf area in the early 2nd c bce
          at about the same time (168 bce) the Jewish Hasmonean Revolt
          (Maccabean) occurred in the Syro-Palestine area
		Parthians used Aramaic; it is not clear what language the 
                Hasmoneans "officially" used, but likely guess is Aramaic,
		although inscriptions on coins usually include Greek along
                with some semitic (hard to distinguish Hebrew from Aramaic)
	Evidence of language surviving in "liturgical" contexts (formal 
          prayer, sacrifice, etc.) includes some examples of Aramaic, as
          also does traditional Jewish rabbinic literature of a later 
          period, transliterations of certain words attributed to Jesus,
          and the like

	To conclude from all this that Aramaic was the main language 
          for everyone in Jewish Palestine would be very simplistic --
          the ingredients for bilingual or even trilingual knowledge
          by some (Aramaic/Hebrew and Greek) are strongly present 

2)  Are there other historic records that might give insight into the 
      language question and related issues of everyday life then?

	Egypt is our main source of ancient written materials because the
          climate is so dry, thus preserving an abundance of writings on 
          papyrus, which was grown and manufactured in that area
	Dead Sea Scrolls were written mostly on leather and were stored 
          in dry caves, but not much else of this sort has survived from 
          the Palestinian area
	in using the evidence from literature that has been passed along by 
          living communities (in contrast to that found archaeologically)
          one problem is that it is not easy to determine what 
          modifications might have been made over the centuries of copying
		Example: Josephus, who has left us some autobiographical
                  information (born about 27 ce, from a priestly family, 
                  served as military leader in the Jewish War, 
                  surrendered to Rome and he became a "court pet" in Rome 
                  where he rewrites in Greek his treatment of the War, 
                  originally addressed -- probably in Aramaic -- to Jewish 
                  readers in the Persian Gulf east) writes his 
                  "Antiquities [or History] of the Jews" which gets 
                  translated into various languages over the centuries; 
		  the Slavic version has a detailed description of John 
                  the Baptist and his vegetarian eating habits which does 
                  not appear in any other versions of Josephus
		Example: Philo "On the Contemplative Life" writes about
		  a community of Therapeutai ("servants/healers") who 
                  lived near Alexandria (Lake Mariotis) and are described 
                  in terms very similar to Philo's description of the 
                  Palestinian Essenes -- some scholars see them as sister 
                  communities; the Christian author Eusebius (about 325
                  ce) claims that Philo is describing early Christian 
                  monastic communities and until about a century ago, 
                  some scholars argued that Philo's treatment was a 
                  Christian forgery, in the interests of proving that 
                  Christian monasticism developed very early.

3) Why are certain communities labeled Christian or Jewish?

        the KEY to such questions rests with the definitions used!
	not always clearly answerable if no specific positive references 
          to Joshua/Jesus as "messiah" are present (or whatever other 
          criteria are used in the particular definition)
	many varieties of early Judaism, and of early Christianity, existed 
          -- Josephus himself experimented with different types of Judaism
	if a Jewish Pharisee started following Jesus, at what point is the 
          Pharisee no longer Jewish (and by whose definition)?
        the question of self-definition (what does the ancient witness 
          consider itself to be?) is crucial for clear understanding 

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