דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
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דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
I think the solution to the origin of the Qumran sect is now obvious. מקדש = sanctuary (not temple). The land of Judah could only have been juxtaposed against the land of the mikdash if the sect originally derived its origins from Samaria as various fragments suggest. To this end could the documents of the community describe how these Jewish priests originally resided at or near Mount Gerizim (= מקדש)?
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
Nodet seems to hint at this explanation (unwittingly) when he writes:
Whatever the meaning may be, the expression does not have a primary topographical meaning, but implies a situation of exile even in Judaea: the implicit reference is Ezek 1-3, where God leaves His sanctuary to visit the exiles, cf. cf. Annie Jaubert. "Le pays de Damas," RB 65 (1958), p. 214-248. 132.
Whatever the meaning may be, the expression does not have a primary topographical meaning, but implies a situation of exile even in Judaea: the implicit reference is Ezek 1-3, where God leaves His sanctuary to visit the exiles, cf. cf. Annie Jaubert. "Le pays de Damas," RB 65 (1958), p. 214-248. 132.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
Great. But the topic belongs in Jewish texts, wrong sub-forum.
“’That was excellently observed’, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.” - Jonathan Swift
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
You know I think this theory might be the best explanation for 'Damascus' in the Qumran texts. Note the use of anagrams in other texts according to Brownlee:
https://books.google.com/books?id=wPifF ... an&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=wPifF ... an&f=false
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
is the anagram in which the letters have been transposed. Thus, in pHab I:5f, "?»» 'work' appears in the lemma and □?»» 'treachery' is used in the pesher. In pHab XI:9-13a relationship between tonn andres is discernable.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
Sariel in 1 Enoch appears to be the result of the use of anagrams https://books.google.com/books?id=wPifF ... am&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=wPifF ... am&f=false
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
Anagrams and the 'Wicked Priest' https://books.google.com/books?id=wPifF ... am&f=false
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
The interpretation of the name 'Adam' as an anagram for the four points on a compass is at least as old as the Qumran texts:
In 2 Enoch 30:13 the Lord tells Enoch that he created Adam out of the seven components and assigned to Adam a name from the four “components:” from East — (A), from West — (D), from North — (A), and from South — (M).[36] The correspondence of the anagram of Adam's name with the four corners of the earth might indicate that the dimensions of his body are considered identical with the size of the earth. The Slavonic text, however, does not make this connection explicitly. Moreover, the question remains if this passage about the anagram is really linked to the traditions about Adam's body. The analysis of the early evidences of the anagram's motif shows that this theme was often connected with the theme of Adam's bodily form. In order to illustrate this point, a short excursus in the history of this tradition is needed.
One of the early Jewish texts where a similar[37] tradition about the anagram can be found is the third book of Sibylline Oracles, a composition apparently written in Egypt around 160-50 BCE.[38] It is intriguing that already in the Sibylline Oracles 3:24-27[39] the anagram is linked to the motif of Adam's bodily form: “Indeed it is God himself who fashioned Adam, of four letters, the first-formed man, fulfilling by his name east and west and south and north. He himself fixed the shape of the form of men (au)to_j d ) e)sth&rice tu&pon morfh=j mero&pwn te).”[40] The term “shape of the form” (tu&pon morfh=j) here seems to be related to the body of the protoplast. The conflation of the anagram of Adam's name with the shape of his form is significant for our investigation.[41]
Another Egyptian source,[42] a passage found in the writings of the Hermetic author, the alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis who lived in Alexandria in the late third or early fourth century CE,[43] also connects the tradition about the anagram of Adam's name with his body:[44] “... they have also spoken of him [Adam] symbolically, according to his body, through the four elements ... for his ‘alpha’ element indicates the east, the air, while his 'delta' element indicates the west, and the 'mu' element [indicates] midday .…”[45]
It should be noted that the Sibylline Oracles 3 and the Zosimos passage, the two early attestations which link the anagram of Adam's name with his body, are both associated with the Egyptian milieu. A passage from Philo mentioned in our previous investigation indicates that by the first century CE the lore about the gigantic physique of the first humans appeared to be widespread in the Alexandrian environment. 2 Enoch, which also contains a host of traditions pertaining to the protoplast's body, might have been also composed at the same time and place, namely, in the Alexandrian Diaspora of the first century CE.
The tradition in which the anagram of Adam's name was associated with his body was not lost in the melting pot of the Alexandrian environment but was carefully transmitted by later Jewish traditions. The same tendency to link the name of Adam derived from the Greek designations of the four corners of the world with his body is observable in the rabbinic materials. The difference between the early accounts found in the Sibylline Oracles and Zosimos of Panopolis and these rabbinic materials is that the latter explicitly identify the anagram, not simply with Adam's body, but with his cosmic body, which according to the rabbinic accounts was created “from one end of the universe to the other.” This tradition is attested in a great variety of the rabbinic sources.
For example, the passage from Gen R. 8:1 reads:
R. Tanhuma in the name of R. Banayah and R. Berekiah in the name of R. Leazar said: He created him [Adam] as a lifeless mass extending from one end of the world to the other; thus it is written, Thine eyes did not see mine unformed substance (Ps. CXXXIX, 16). R. Joshua b. R. Nehemiah and R. Judah b. R. Simon in R. Leasar's name said: He created him filling the whole world. How do we know [that he stretched] from east to west? Because it is said, “Thou hast formed me behind and before.” From north to south? Because it says, Since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other (Deut. IV, 32). and how do we know that he filled the empty spaces of the world/ From the verse, “And laid Thy hand upon me” (as you read, Withdraw Thy hand from me (Job XIII, 21)).[46]
This passage indicates that the speculations about the cosmic body of the protoplast in the rabbinic literature were juxtaposed with the tradition about the correspondence of Adam's name with the four corners of the earth. It is remarkable that the passage from Gen. R. 8:1 has exactly the same “sequence” of the corners as 2 Enoch, namely “from east (A) to west (D)” and from “north (A) to south (M),” which precisely corresponds to the sequence of the letters of Adam's name. The presence of the anagram in the midrashic text points to its ancient Hellenistic origin since the anagram does not carry any meaning in Hebrew, but only in Greek. This tradition about the correspondence of Adam's cosmic body with the four corners of the world and the four letters of his name was widespread in rabbinic literature and was repeated multiple times in Gen. R. 21:3, Gen. R. 24:2, Lev. R. 14:1, and Lev. R. 18:2. It is significant that all these passages have the same order of the corners of the world: from east to west and from north to south. A similar tradition can be also found in the Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Jerahmeel where the motif of Adam's gigantic body created from the four corners of the world is conflated with the story of the veneration of the protoplast by the creatures who mistakenly perceived him as a deity.[47]
Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 11 reads:
He [God] began to collect the dust of the first man from the four corners of the world... He [Adam] stood on his feet and was adorned with the Divine Image. His height was from east to west, as it is said, “Thou hast beset me behind and before.” “Behind” refers to the west, “before” refers to the east. All the creatures saw him and became afraid of him, thinking that he was their Creator, and they came to prostrate themselves before him.[48]
In the Chronicles of Jerahmeel 6-12, the same tradition is repeated in a virtually identical form:
...God then called Gabriel, and said unto him: “Go and bring Me dust from the four corners of the earth, and I will create man out of it”.... He [Adam] stood upon his feet, and was in the likeness of God; his height extended from the east to the west, as it is said, “Behind and in front Thou hast formed me.” Behind, that is the west, and in front, that is the east. All creatures saw him and were afraid of him; they thought he was their creator, and prostrated themselves before him.[49]
The testimonies from Midrash Rabbah, Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Jerahmeel demonstrate that in the Jewish materials the anagram tradition was consistently interpreted as a reference to the cosmic body of the protoplast, created from one end of the universe to the other. In light of this tendency, it is possible that the tradition about the anagram found in 2 Enoch 30 also represents a reference to the cosmic body of the protoplast. This suggestion is made more plausible when one considers that the anagram tradition in 2 Enoch 30:13 follows immediately after the definition of the protoplast as a great celestial creature.[50]
In 2 Enoch 30:13 the Lord tells Enoch that he created Adam out of the seven components and assigned to Adam a name from the four “components:” from East — (A), from West — (D), from North — (A), and from South — (M).[36] The correspondence of the anagram of Adam's name with the four corners of the earth might indicate that the dimensions of his body are considered identical with the size of the earth. The Slavonic text, however, does not make this connection explicitly. Moreover, the question remains if this passage about the anagram is really linked to the traditions about Adam's body. The analysis of the early evidences of the anagram's motif shows that this theme was often connected with the theme of Adam's bodily form. In order to illustrate this point, a short excursus in the history of this tradition is needed.
One of the early Jewish texts where a similar[37] tradition about the anagram can be found is the third book of Sibylline Oracles, a composition apparently written in Egypt around 160-50 BCE.[38] It is intriguing that already in the Sibylline Oracles 3:24-27[39] the anagram is linked to the motif of Adam's bodily form: “Indeed it is God himself who fashioned Adam, of four letters, the first-formed man, fulfilling by his name east and west and south and north. He himself fixed the shape of the form of men (au)to_j d ) e)sth&rice tu&pon morfh=j mero&pwn te).”[40] The term “shape of the form” (tu&pon morfh=j) here seems to be related to the body of the protoplast. The conflation of the anagram of Adam's name with the shape of his form is significant for our investigation.[41]
Another Egyptian source,[42] a passage found in the writings of the Hermetic author, the alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis who lived in Alexandria in the late third or early fourth century CE,[43] also connects the tradition about the anagram of Adam's name with his body:[44] “... they have also spoken of him [Adam] symbolically, according to his body, through the four elements ... for his ‘alpha’ element indicates the east, the air, while his 'delta' element indicates the west, and the 'mu' element [indicates] midday .…”[45]
It should be noted that the Sibylline Oracles 3 and the Zosimos passage, the two early attestations which link the anagram of Adam's name with his body, are both associated with the Egyptian milieu. A passage from Philo mentioned in our previous investigation indicates that by the first century CE the lore about the gigantic physique of the first humans appeared to be widespread in the Alexandrian environment. 2 Enoch, which also contains a host of traditions pertaining to the protoplast's body, might have been also composed at the same time and place, namely, in the Alexandrian Diaspora of the first century CE.
The tradition in which the anagram of Adam's name was associated with his body was not lost in the melting pot of the Alexandrian environment but was carefully transmitted by later Jewish traditions. The same tendency to link the name of Adam derived from the Greek designations of the four corners of the world with his body is observable in the rabbinic materials. The difference between the early accounts found in the Sibylline Oracles and Zosimos of Panopolis and these rabbinic materials is that the latter explicitly identify the anagram, not simply with Adam's body, but with his cosmic body, which according to the rabbinic accounts was created “from one end of the universe to the other.” This tradition is attested in a great variety of the rabbinic sources.
For example, the passage from Gen R. 8:1 reads:
R. Tanhuma in the name of R. Banayah and R. Berekiah in the name of R. Leazar said: He created him [Adam] as a lifeless mass extending from one end of the world to the other; thus it is written, Thine eyes did not see mine unformed substance (Ps. CXXXIX, 16). R. Joshua b. R. Nehemiah and R. Judah b. R. Simon in R. Leasar's name said: He created him filling the whole world. How do we know [that he stretched] from east to west? Because it is said, “Thou hast formed me behind and before.” From north to south? Because it says, Since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other (Deut. IV, 32). and how do we know that he filled the empty spaces of the world/ From the verse, “And laid Thy hand upon me” (as you read, Withdraw Thy hand from me (Job XIII, 21)).[46]
This passage indicates that the speculations about the cosmic body of the protoplast in the rabbinic literature were juxtaposed with the tradition about the correspondence of Adam's name with the four corners of the earth. It is remarkable that the passage from Gen. R. 8:1 has exactly the same “sequence” of the corners as 2 Enoch, namely “from east (A) to west (D)” and from “north (A) to south (M),” which precisely corresponds to the sequence of the letters of Adam's name. The presence of the anagram in the midrashic text points to its ancient Hellenistic origin since the anagram does not carry any meaning in Hebrew, but only in Greek. This tradition about the correspondence of Adam's cosmic body with the four corners of the world and the four letters of his name was widespread in rabbinic literature and was repeated multiple times in Gen. R. 21:3, Gen. R. 24:2, Lev. R. 14:1, and Lev. R. 18:2. It is significant that all these passages have the same order of the corners of the world: from east to west and from north to south. A similar tradition can be also found in the Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Jerahmeel where the motif of Adam's gigantic body created from the four corners of the world is conflated with the story of the veneration of the protoplast by the creatures who mistakenly perceived him as a deity.[47]
Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 11 reads:
He [God] began to collect the dust of the first man from the four corners of the world... He [Adam] stood on his feet and was adorned with the Divine Image. His height was from east to west, as it is said, “Thou hast beset me behind and before.” “Behind” refers to the west, “before” refers to the east. All the creatures saw him and became afraid of him, thinking that he was their Creator, and they came to prostrate themselves before him.[48]
In the Chronicles of Jerahmeel 6-12, the same tradition is repeated in a virtually identical form:
...God then called Gabriel, and said unto him: “Go and bring Me dust from the four corners of the earth, and I will create man out of it”.... He [Adam] stood upon his feet, and was in the likeness of God; his height extended from the east to the west, as it is said, “Behind and in front Thou hast formed me.” Behind, that is the west, and in front, that is the east. All creatures saw him and were afraid of him; they thought he was their creator, and prostrated themselves before him.[49]
The testimonies from Midrash Rabbah, Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Jerahmeel demonstrate that in the Jewish materials the anagram tradition was consistently interpreted as a reference to the cosmic body of the protoplast, created from one end of the universe to the other. In light of this tendency, it is possible that the tradition about the anagram found in 2 Enoch 30 also represents a reference to the cosmic body of the protoplast. This suggestion is made more plausible when one considers that the anagram tradition in 2 Enoch 30:13 follows immediately after the definition of the protoplast as a great celestial creature.[50]
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
Brownlee also notes that - in an example very close to our own - 'temple' is rendered as an anagram:
Hartog ends up acknowledging that 'temple' is an example of anagram.Brownlee identified another case of anagram in this interpretation of Hab 2:19–20:
ףסכובהז שופת אוה הנה הרוי אוה[ םמוד ןב]א[ל ]ירו[ע הציקה ץעל ]רמוא י[וה יוה םיוגה לוכ לע ורשפ 140ץראה לוכ וינפלמ סה ]ושדוק לכיהב ׳הו וברקבןיא חור לוכו תאו םיבצעה ידבוע לוכ תא לא הלכי טפשמה םויבו ץעה תאו ןבאה תא ודבע רשא ץראה ןמ םיעשרה
Woe, wo[e who says] to wood "awake!" (and) "ge[t up!" to a dumb st[o]ne. [Does it instruct? See, it is covered with gold and silver, but there is no spirit at all in it! But the Lord is in his holy temple]. Hush for him all the earth! (Hab 2.19,20). Its interpretation concerns all the peoples who serve stone and wood. But on the day of judgement God shall destroy all who serve idols and all the wicked from the earth. 1QpHab 12:14–13:4 In
Brownlee's view, the reference to “the temple” (לכיה) in the lemma informs the use of the verb “he shall destroy” (הלכי) in the interpretation. This use of anagram would have been part of a larger hermeneutical operation in which the mention of the temple in Hab 2:20 is transformed into a reference to the day of judgement: https://books.google.com/books?id=tyk_D ... 22&f=false
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: דמשק is an Anagram for מקדש
I've already asked Benny the Samaritan if 'eretz mikdash' is a surviving Samaritan terminology. If it is - case closed.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote