Nel Documento Di Damasco? La Terra Del Santuario Nella “Piccola Gerusalemme” Di Onia

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Nel Documento Di Damasco? La Terra Del Santuario Nella “Piccola Gerusalemme” Di Onia SILVIO BARBAGLIA CHE COSA RAPPRESENTA DAMASCO NEL DOCUMENTO DI DAMASCO? LA TERRA DEL SANTUARIO NELLA “PICCOLA GERUSALEMME” DI ONIA Volume Primo “Damasco” nel Documento di Damasco Funzione retorico-teologica di un’indicazione toponomastica NOVARA 2020 AVVERTENZA PER IL LETTORE L’intera opera in Tre Volumi, di cui il Terzo in Due Tomi, fu presentata originariamente nel novembre 2017 come Tesi di Dottorato in Teologia, indirizzo di Studi Biblici, presso la Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale di Milano, sotto la direzione del prof. don Roberto Vignolo. La nuova edizione, qui consultabile, è frutto di revisione, correzioni, aggiornamenti e ampliamenti ad opera dell’autore, tenendo conto anche delle osservazioni fornite dalla Commissione d’esame del Dottorato (proff. Roberto Vignolo, Gianantonio Borgonovo, Gian Luigi Prato e Joseph Sievers). Rispetto alle dimensioni di ampiezza della precedente edizione, la presente registra una crescita di 124 pagine di testo (=3.006 pagine), 183 note a piè di pagina (=4.747 note), 470 nuovi titoli consultati per la bibliografia (=3.326 titoli) e 30 nuovi link per la sitografia (=160 siti Internet). La Difesa dottorale, del 13 giugno 2018, tenne come oggetto di confronto unicamente il Volume Terzo, all’interno del quale la Commissione esaminatrice concesse «diritto di pubblicazione», nella forma dell’«Estratto», dell’ultimo capitolo dell’opera. La pubblicazione, al seguito indicata, è stata consegnata in data 14 novembre 2018, secondo le norme richieste per il conseguimento del titolo di Dottorato in Teologia: S. BARBAGLIA, “Damasco” nel Documento di Damasco. Il Santuario degli Ebrei in Egitto (Estratto della Dissertazione dottorale n° 81), Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale, Milano 2018, pp. 319. In occasione della pubblicazione della monografia S. BARBAGLIA, Il tempio di Eliopoli e i rotoli del Mar Morto. Nuova ipotesi sulle origini di Qumran («Piccola biblioteca teologica» 135), Claudiana, Torino 2020, pp. 166, appoggiata per la documentazione alle pagine che seguono, è stato aggiunto anche un «Post- scriptum», al termine dell’intera opera, per un confronto positivo con la pubblicazione dell’importante lavoro dottorale, in assoluto la più recente (giugno 2019) sul Tempio di Onia in Egitto, del prof. Meron M. Piotrkowski, della Hebrew University di Gerusalemme (cfr. Vol. III, To. 2, pp.#1827-1839). Tutte le pagine di quest’opera in Tre Volumi, di cui il Terzo in Due Tomi, sono coperte da Copyright. Edizione online del marzo 2020. Autore: Silvio Barbaglia – Copyright. All rights reserved © 2020. 2 Ai miei genitori. A mia mamma Giulia e a mio papà Giovanni, grandi e splendidi nella loro semplicità 1:1 התעו ועמש לכ י יעדו קדצ יבו נ ו ישעמב 2 לא . 1:1E ora, ascoltate, voi tutti che conoscete la giustizia e comprenderete le opere di 2Dio (CD-A 1:1-2a) PROLOGO (DELLA DISSERTAZIONE DOTTORALE IN TEOLOGIA, INDIRIZZO DI STUDI BIBLICI – MILANO, 14 NOV. 2017) 1. Alcuni flash autobiografici per portare alla luce il «non detto» Era come oggi il 14 novembre di cinque anni fa. È passato un lustro da quel mercoledì mattina, attorno alle cinque, quando stavo preparando una conferenza che avrei dovuto tenere quella stessa sera sul tema: «Gli Esseni e Qumran». Dovendo presentare le ipotesi storiche sull’origine di Qumran e il rapporto stretto con il movimento degli Esseni, mi concentrai sul Documento di Damasco (=DD), sull’intrigante passaggio, che racconta di un’uscita di un gruppo di fedeli dalla terra di Giuda per recarsi «nel paese di Damasco», al fine di stringere una «nuova alleanza» con Dio (cfr. CD-A 6:2-5). Conoscevo la centralità, l’eccezionalità e l’importanza di tali espressioni che facevano di DD un testo di assoluta unicità nella letteratura del Giudaismo del Secondo Tempio. Eppure, confrontandomi con le molteplici ipotesi che hanno cercato di rendere perspicua l’identità enigmatica della «terra di Damasco» restavo perplesso e non mi tornavano una serie di cose. E per questo ipotizzai che la semantica dell’espressione «terra di Damasco» potesse racchiudere un valore non tanto topografico, come normalmente si continua a credere, bensì un significato collegato ad una raffinata elaborazione teologica. Volli così verificare – attraverso software funzionali alla numerologia biblica e alla ricerca sul lessico – quale fosse il valore numerico del lemma, dammeśeq») e – קֶשֶׂמַּדּ ») nella sua forma ebraica maggiormente attestata vidi che si trattava del numero «444»; confrontai, dunque, gli altri lemmi presenti nel dizionario e nella fraseologia biblica aventi lo stesso valore e mi si presentò la sorpresa che tra tutti i termini del vocabolario ebraico composti con quattro lettere ve ne fosse solo uno che condivideva le stesse lettere consonanti (ed evidentemente lo stesso valore numerologico) che compongono il toponimo «Damasco» nella lingua ebraica; e tale termine, con mio grande stupore, attraversava non solo l’intero testo di DD1 ma, in qualche modo, rappresentava il senso stesso della problematica storica e teologica di cui il documento si incaricava di narrare e di commentare: esattamente, del venir meno della sacralità del Tempio di Gerusalemme, con la sua profanazione. Il termine occultato e anagrammato nelle quattro lettere /cioè il «Santuario ,« שדקמ » era dunque (« קשמד ») «ebraiche di «Damasco Tempio»! Casualità fortuita, giochi di combinazioni cabalistiche o volontà criptata di una raffinata scuola scribale, con precise finalità teologiche? Tale si poneva il dilemma nel suo sorgere… Ecco che allora mi si aprì davanti agli occhi l’ipotesi che gli scribi che posero mano a questo testo, alquanto criptico in molte sue parti, avessero voluto celare il nome della vera destinazione di quel gruppo fuoriuscito dalla terra di Giuda e dalla «città del Santuario» (cioè da Gerusalemme), per recarsi non tanto nella «terra di Damasco», bensì nella «terra del Santuario»! Dal Santuario/ Tempio profanato all’epoca di Antioco IV Epifane (167 a.C.) all’unico altro Santuario/ Tempio conosciuto dalla storiografia di quegli anni, retto da un pontificato legittimo, quello della famiglia oniade-sadocita, con il sommo sacerdote Onia III e il figlio suo Onia IV, di cui conosciamo una serie di informazioni grazie ai resoconti raccolti nelle opere di Giuseppe Flavio2. 1 Cfr. CD-A 1:3; 4:1,18; 5:6; 6:12,16; 12:1-2; CD-B 20:23. 2 Lo storico giudeo Giuseppe Flavio si è interessato in più punti della sua produzione letteraria alla storia della presenza degli Oniadi in Egitto, in specie per la fondazione del 6 Quella sera, di quel mercoledì 14 novembre del 2012, decisi di esporre l’ipotesi di lavoro intuita la mattina stessa e che vedeva l’origine del gruppo di Qumran esattamente in coloro – i «figli di Sadoc» (cfr. CD-A 4:3) – che erano fuggiti in Egitto presso il nomo di Eliopoli3 e ivi avevano edificato un Tempio al Dio d’Israele – precisamente in quella «terra del Santuario» – per riconfermare e rinnovare l’alleanza con il Dio fedele. Lì in Egitto e non a Damasco in Sira, a Babilonia in Iraq o a Qumran nella terra di Giuda, andavano rintracciate le origini di quel gruppo4. Pensai da subito di scrivere un articolo specifico per avanzare tale ipotesi di lavoro che, in sé, può essere sintetizzata in poche battute, come ho appena proposto ma che, per provarla in modo scientifico, necessitava di esporre dati e riflessioni alquanto complessi. Infatti, anche solo un abbozzo del lavoro, scritto in quei mesi, già superava le cento pagine5; pensai allora di scrivere un libro… Ma una mattina del mese di febbraio dell’anno 2013 collegai nella mia mente due suggestioni: il desiderio di avviare tale ricerca in un campo così complesso, come sono i manoscritti di Qumran, e le parole di mia mamma nuovo Tempio nel nomo di Eliopoli; cfr. Bell. 1,31-33; 7,420-436; Ant. 12,223-241.382- 388; 13,62-73.284-287.348-355; 20,235-237; Ap. 2,48-54. 3 Preciserò più avanti la scelta dell’area di Eliopoli come luogo del Tempio di Onia; invece della Leontopoli di Giuseppe Flavio, identificata con il sito di Tell el-Yehoudiyeh, accogliamo la proposta di Gideon Bohak che candida il sito di Demerdash, a 4 km a sud di Eliopoli, in direzione di Memfis (cfr. Vol. II, pp.#456ss). 4 L’esposizione dell’ipotesi di lavoro che prendeva le distanze rispetto alle identificazioni maggioritarie (con la stessa Damasco, a Babilonia oppure a Qumran), è possibile reperirla a un’ora e ventitré minuti (1:23) al link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Nn-iicicw che presenta la videoregistrazione dell’incontro «Gli Esseni e Qumran», collocato all’interno del ciclo di conferenze tenuto presso l’Associazione Culturale Diocesana «La Nuova Regaldi» intitolato: «Qumran e i Rotoli del Mar Morto. Tra bufale, capre e verità» (ottobre- dicembre 2012). 5 Tra gli esperti a cui fu sottoposto l’abbozzo del lavoro di poco più di cento pagine vi era anche il prof. Simone Paganini con il quale mi confrontai nel giugno del 2013, condividendo così l’ipotesi di «Damasco» come anagramma del termine ebraico «Santuario»; a chiusura di quell’anno usciva una sua monografia (cfr. S. PAGANINI, Gesù, Qumran e gli esseni. Le prime comunità cristiane e l’essenismo [La Parola e la sua ricchezza 16], Paoline, Cinisello Balsamo [Milano] 2013) che anticipava l’intuizione che regge l’intero castello probatorio dell’opera qui presentata; così si esprimeva il Paganini esponendo in massima sintesi la crux interpretum di «Damasco» in DD: «Va notato comunque che il nome “Damasco” in ebraico (dmsq) è un anagramma del termine che significa “tempio” (mqds) e quindi ci potremmo trovare di fronte a uno scritto simbolico» (p. 144). 7 che mi aveva più volte detto lungo quegli anni e ripetuto ancora in quei giorni: «Faccio in tempo a morire e non hai ancora finito di scrivere la tesi per il dottorato!». Va detto che quattordici anni prima, nel 1999, andai a Tubinga a fare ricerca presso le fornitissime biblioteche della rinomata città universitaria tedesca, nel tempo che mi ero dato di cinque mesi, al fine di comporre quello che avrebbe dovuto essere il lavoro di dottorato in Teologia biblica, presso la Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale di Milano, lavoro che era intitolato: «Dal “Rotolo” al “Codice”.
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