As many know I have taken an interest in the Samaritan account of the Dositheans (דסתאן). For twenty years I struggled to go from this term back to the Greek = 'those of Dositheos' and then make sense of the sect. However I recent stumbled across this exact term (דוסתאן) in various Judeo-Persian texts to translate 'lovers' in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. http://books.google.com/books?id=g7gTAQ ... CB4Q6AEwAA
I think this is a major breakthrough. In other words, what I think happened historically was that the name of the sect may have been rooted in a Persian word. The Greek is just a clumsy attempt to make sense of the terminology. Some examples of what דוסתאן replaces in the Judeo-Persian texts :
I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved ( יְדִד֥וּת ) of my soul into the hands of her enemies (Jeremiah 12:7)
And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends ( אֹ֣הֲבֶ֔יךָ ) to whom you have prophesied lies.' (Jeremiah 20:6)
And so I handed her over to her Assyrian lovers (מְאַֽהֲבֶ֑יהָ), whom she desired so much (Ezekiel 23:9)
All your lovers (מְאַהֲבַ֣יִךְ) have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many.
Now was the idea that Jesus was 'the beloved' or that the community were the 'lovers' of God? Don't know yet.
Last edited by Stephan Huller on Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:28 am, edited 3 times in total.
Now comes the real problem. WTF do I know or anyone here at the forum know about Judeo-Persian? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Persian Apparently Brill published a translation of a text which was written in this language from China (!) recently. I think this is also the language that a number of texts were discovered recently in Afghanistan.
There exists a 13th century text "the author is a supposedly famous poet who has previously recited many 'books of lovers' (v. 253: namah i dostan) , which, good Muslim that he is, he now regrets. He is, in other words, not an ex- heroic but an ex-romantic poet." http://books.google.com/books?id=t9GoNH ... rs&f=false
Dustan in early Persian Christianity. From Baha'ullah's Covenant where Jesus addresses mankind:
My Friends (ay dustan-i man)! Have ye forgotten that true and radiant morn (subh-i sadiq-i rawshanl-ra), when in those hallowed and blessed surroundings ye were all in My presence beneath the shade of the tree of life, which is planted in the all-glorious paradise? Awe-struck ye listened as as I gave utterance to these three most holy words: O friends (ay dustan-i man)! Prefer not your will to Mine, never desire that which I have not desired for you, and approach Me not with lifeless hearts, defiled with worldly desires and cravings. Would ye but sanctify your souls, ye would at this present hour recall that place and those surroundings, and the truth of My utterance should be made evident unto all of you.
I think the idea of the Samaritan sect being called by the same name implies that their founder was divine.
My friend Rory Boid of Monash U thought my phone description "was promising." Mentioned
1 the form Dustan was older than Abu'l Fath ie there is a "Dustan" section of the Samaritan prayer book
2 the form "Dusis" can be explained by the "t" dropping out in Arabic quite easily
I suppose the common text was preserved in Greek where "Dustus" might be the artificial attempt to preserve the Persian "dost" (friend) the founder of the Dostan as a proper name.
