From kraft Fri Jan 20 01:35:44 1995
Subject: Metropolitan Samuel 
To: dss
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 01:35:44 -0500 (EST)
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> I know this is a naive question, but I was told not to hesitate to ask 
> questions of you so here goes. . .
> 
> In the book _The Dead Sea Scrolls Today_ they continue to refer to a 
> "Metropolitan Samuel" or a "metropolitan" that possessed many of the 
> originally found scrolls.  Sometimes it seems to take on the 
> characteristics of an institution, others an individual.  Could you 
> explain what the Metropolitan Samuel and metropolitan references are to?  

Not naive at all, and the failure of VanderKam's editors to be
consistent about using upper case with "Metropolitan" encourages
confusion. As you will have seen in the film, "Metropolitan Samuel" was
a person (black beard, black garb -- well, the film at that point was
black and white, in any event -- not to be confused with Larry
Schiffman!) connected with the Syrian Orthodox Christian Church that the
dealer Kando attended. "Metropolitan" is a title for a particular Church
leader, similar to "Bishop" or "Abbot." Both "Metropolitan" and
"metropolitan" in VanderKam refer to this person by his title.

RAK