ISRAEL

written by the who, according to the 1st tioned. In fact that’s because the Essenes never Roitman says that Josephus is a kind of century CE Jewish historian Josephus, flour- existed. The argument was made in the 1950’s. “ancient ethnographer” and he is describing “a ished in Judea from the 2nd century BCE to the I’m just making the same argument again and group at odds with contemporary Greco- 1st century CE, at the time of Jesus and just louder.” Roman society.” He says Elior is reading the before the destruction of the Second Temple in Speaking passionately, Elior theorizes that ancient sources, “in a simplistic way. She has 70 CE. But already in the 1950’s, in the infancy Josephus, a former Jewish priest who wrote his adopted a very problematic approach to ancient of Scroll scholarship, at least two respected history in Rome, invented the fable to rebut historiography.” Hebrew University professors of Semitic lin- negative Roman stereotypes about the Jews. guistics Moshe Goshen-Gottshein and Chaim “So he created an ‘imaginary’ Jewish sect of INCE THE FULL PUBLICATION OF Rabin questioned that theory. Elior says their virtuous, Spartan-like people who lived com- the scrolls eight years ago, the field has minority-view arguments were marginalized or munally and survived by adopting masses of Sbeen opened up to scholars in a wide dismissed entirely. orphans.” She conjectures that Josephus likely range of fields, from women’s studies to philol- Another, more sensational illustration of the chose that model because he knew that the ogy. Elior and Golb are part of that new wave passions that the debate arouses came in early Romans admired the Spartans. The real of scholars who came to the March, with the arrest in New York of Raphael authors, she says, were likely the , from other disciplines. Golb, son of University of Jewish his- descendants of Zadok, the Israelites’ high priest Born and raised in Israel, Elior says she torian Norman Golb, on suspicion of using under King David. The Sadducees served as stumbled on the possibility that the Essenes dozens of Internet aliases to reinforce his high priests until 175 BCE, when they were were a utopian fiction by chance, because of father’s case and defame one of his critics. The ousted by the Hasmoneans and were banished her academic interest in the history of Jewish senior Golb, also an expert on the Cairo from the Temple. “When the renegade sons of mysticism. Her 1987 sabbatical at Oxford Genizah library of documents which were Zadok, who were deeply conservative, left University coincided with Hebrew University found in the 19th century, has been arguing for Jerusalem, they took with them their library professor ’s monumental editing years that the scrolls were the work of many which was all about their priestly heritage.” She of the scrolls there. “The printing press was at diverse groups. He has also argued that the theorizes that they took the library to isolated Oxford and I spent my time reading the vol- complex was not an Essene monastery Qumran for safekeeping because Jewish life umes as they were published. I noticed that the but a fortress for Jews fleeing Roman invaders. was unstable in Jerusalem. Elior notes that there scrolls were deeply connected to priestly mem- Author of the 1996 book “Who Wrote the Dead has always been a secondary debate among ory and affiliated with subjects that Sea Scrolls? The Search for the Secret of scholars whether the scrolls were actually writ- related to Sadducee tradition. The fact is, it was Qumran,” Golb has accused mainstream schol- ten in Qumran or just brought there for storage. their library, they wrote it.” ars of trying to silence him and of constituting a Elior’s theory has been rapidly and She admits breezily that she’s an “outsider” united sect no less fanatic than the Qumran sect. roundly rejected by mainstream scholars who in the cloistered world of Dead Sea Scroll Referring to the Golb affair, Elior told The angrily insist that she is blithely overturning 60 scholarship. “But so what, if I came to the sub- Jerusalem Report: “ It’s a personal tragedy for years of careful research and that her field is not ject in a round-about way?” she asks. “I have the Golb family which has nothing to do with the period of the scrolls, but Jewish mysticism been studying the Dead Sea Scrolls for many my book or what I have to say.” She says the of later periods. “She hasn’t even published a years. I make no remarks about archeology, measures taken by the Golb son were extreme single thing in a scholarly Dead Sea Scroll jour- only on texts that everybody can read.” She and unacceptable, however it’s legitimately nal,” charges Bar-Ilan University archeology insists that “an unbiased reader” will come to infuriating that that the senior Golb’s views professor . the same conclusion that she has. But the were automatically dismissed by others. Dr. Adolfo Roitman , curator of the Shrine Essene thesis, she says, was and remains the of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scroll majority opinion. Scholars who have ques- HE ESSENES ARE MENTIONED collection at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, tioned the existence of the Essenes have been by at least four 1st century sources: Philo tells The Report that he too “strongly dis- severely criticized since the 1950’s and contin- Tof Alexandria, the Hellenistic Jewish agrees” with Elior. He has not read her book, ue to be spurned today, she says, citing Golb. philosopher; Pliny the Elder, the Roman author; but says: “I don’t see any reason to refute care- The Essenes were first mentioned by Philo, Josephus, who said they lived in celibate absti- ful scholarship which says that the Essenes who died in the year 50 CE. He wrote that there nence from wordly pleasures, including sex; existed and wrote the scrolls.” Roitman says were more than 4,000 Essenes living in villages and the slightly later Dio Chrysostom, the that he is confident that the Essenes were a gen- throughout the Land of Israel. He claimed that Greek philosopher and historian. But Elior uine sect and he points out that they are referred these people lived simply and had no earthly asserts that what she calls Josephus’ “invented” to, in great detail by Josephus, Pliny, Philo and possessions, studied and strictly observed the writings on the subject were erroneously Dio Chrysostom. “The fact that they are not Sabbath. They were steeped in high ideals and repeated in subsequent centuries. She says that mentioned elsewhere is irrelevant,” he contin- love of God, led a communal life and possessed the Essenes are, in fact, a “legend” and aren’t ues. “Many significant ancient sects were only no slaves. The second “witness,” Pliny the even mentioned in the scrolls whose English- casually mentioned. That’s how ancient histori- Elder who died in the year 79, mentioned Ein language translation fills 39 volumes. “Philo ography works, that is what we have.” He cites Gedi, next to the Dead Sea, as their place of res- was telling a story. It is absurd to think that for the Herodians, a sect mentioned infrequently in idence, a location that Elior asserts was too so many years, such a large group of people, the New Testament as having shown an small an area to accommodate so many inhabi- numbering in the thousands, led a celibate life, unfriendly disposition towards Jesus as well as tants. Josephus, writing in the last third of the which is against the Jewish imperative to ‘go a sect of monastic healers who lived outside 1st century in Rome, provides the third testi- forth and multiply’ and are hardly ever men- Alexandria who are mentioned only by Philo. mony. He relates much the same information,

12 THE JERUSALEM REPORT APRIL 27, 2009