From kraft Mon Jan 23 21:16:57 1995
Subject: Qumran and the Temple (Questions)
To: dss

> On page 60 of the VanderKam book, there is a brief discussion of the 
> relationship between the Qumranites and the Pharisees, Essenes, and 
> Sadducees. a.)  Weren't the Qumranites Essenes? b.) What then (more 
> specifically) was the religious relationship between them, the Pharisees 
> and the Sadducees?  Which were they ideologically affiliated with?  And, 
> perhaps somewhat related, of what importance did the Jerusalem temple 
> play to the Qumran community?
> 
> I know that there are a lot of questions there (perhaps some answered 
> later in the book, in which case please graciously brush me off :) but 
> this is what I'm questioning at the moment. . .)

Again, you needn't wait to read the rest of the book to address these
important and basic questions. You can check the index (e.g. under
"Essenes," which will lead you to extensive discussions of the pros and
cons of identifying the Qumranites with Essenes. Fitzmyer also discusses
these issues in several of his "Questions" (see his index). Both
VanderKam and Fitzmyer conclude that the identification of the
Qumranites with Essenes is reasonable in the light of our current
knowledge.

Similarly with the other issues -- check the respective indices!
Sometimes you need to be a little clever: neither VanderKam nor Fitzmyer
have index entries for "Temple" as such (both have "Temple Scroll,"
which might be useful), but at least Fitzmyer does have an entry under
"Jerusalem, Temple of." Check it out. Whether the absence of any such
entry in VanderKam is an indexing oversight, or whether he fails to talk
about the relation of the Qumranites to the Jerusalem Temple and its
leaders is something that the class needs to watch for as they read! If
we find that VanderKam fails to mention this issue, we can attempt to
determine why, and can inform him of the problem.

RAK 

From kraft Tue Jan 24 23:10:18 1995
Subject: Index / Temple Suggestion

> If Temple, or Jerusalem, Temple of, don't yield helpful information, or
> aren't present in a particular source, try "Priest, Wicked" or just
> "Wicked Priest" for some discussion of related issues.
> 
> Sigrid

Thank you, Sigrid, for a helpful and resourceful suggestion. RAK