Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Though I do not suppose that such a posited invention occurred, here's comment on the proposal concerning Philo. mary helena wrote: "Rachael [she uses the spelling Rachel] Elior has already suggested that it was Philo that invented the Essenes..." It may be worth recalling that Prof. Elior first pro...

I recommend that libraries obtain this book for its interesting arguments and contributions to learning, though scholars might do well to recognize some shortcomings. It is generally quite well written and produced (a rare exception: consistently misspelling the Protogospel of James scholar George Z...

"Presuppositions"? Augustus Spijkerman and Henri Seyrig--two of the best experts alive--were invited by de Vaux to examine coins including silver coins hoarded at Qumran. These three (and others) agreed that the latest hoarded coin date was 9/8 BCE. Robert Donceel, who was not too shy to disagree wi...

If the above observations are valid, it then follows that the Wikipedia Qumran article coin section was largely unreliable for several years. Lately someone has brought it a bit closer to reality, for example by citing a 2010 article in Dead Sea Discoveries that finds Lönnqvist claims on the Qumran ...

Lönnqvist op. cit. page 10, On Donceel on intrusive coins: "After consultation with H. Seyrig, these coins were removed from the main accounting of the hoards of Qumran." But Henri Seyrig died in 1973, and Donceel did not become involved with the Qumran publication project until 1986 or 1987.

Apparently, there was a misunderstanding of R. Donceel's Revue Biblique comment (in French; quoted in gospels and coins thread) on the hoard coins in K. Lönnqvist, Report of the Amman Lots... (2007) p. 10, where is it mistakenly referred to as : "...these coins were removed....It remains unclear wha...

The Conclusion's first sentence: "Jesus as a Nazirite for life is not consciously stated in the synoptic gospel tradition, though it underpins the earliest thought on Jesus, as the independent references to Samson and Samuel demonstrate." "Jesus as a Nazarite for life..." Who do you claim would have...

In case this hasn't been noted here (a search didn't turn it up), Journal of The Jesus Movement in Its Jewish Setting from the First to the Seventh Century, online
at
http://www.jjmjs.org/
has two freely-available issues and invites article-related comments in their forum.

Michael Peppard has a new book, The world's oldest church : Bible, art, and ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria (Yale UP, 2016--I have not seen it yet) and a Jan. 30 article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/is-this-the-oldest-image-of-the-virgin-mary.html And a previous article:“Illuminat...

Also, reportedly 50 silver coins that had been on museum exhibit in the US were returned, and were eventually relocated. As Donceel noted, with those and the H. Seyrig list, the hoard might be reconstructed (in the final report?) and intrusions excluded. Further, the Qumran coins reportedly had been...