Natty:

Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls 'Authors' Never Existed

By Tim McGirk / Jerusalem Monday, Mar. 16, 2009

from time.com

Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all — a claim that has shaken the bedrock of biblical scholarship.

Elior, who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, claims that the Essenes were a fabrication by the 1st century A.D. Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus and that his faulty reporting was passed on as fact throughout the centuries. As Elior explains, the Essenes make no mention of themselves in the 900 scrolls found by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947 in the caves of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. "Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls," Elior tells TIME. "But they didn't exist. This is legend on a legend." (See pictures of 60 years of Israel.)

Elior contends that Josephus, a former Jewish priest who wrote his history while being held captive in Rome, "wanted to explain to the Romans that the Jews weren't all losers and traitors, that there were many exceptional Jews of religious devotion and heroism. You might say it was the first rebuttal to anti-Semitic literature." She adds, "He was probably inspired by the Spartans. For the Romans, the Spartans were the highest ideal of human behavior, and Josephus wanted to portray Jews who were like the Spartans in their ideals and high virtue." (See pictures of disputed artifiacts.)

Early descriptions of the Essenes by Greek and Roman historians has them numbering in the thousands, living communally ("The first kibbutz," jokes Elior) and forsaking sex — which goes against the Judaic exhortation to "go forth and multiply." Says Elior: "It doesn't make sense that you have thousands of people living against the Jewish law and there's no mention of them in any of the Jewish texts and sources of that period." (Read "Is This Jesus's Tomb?")

So who were the real authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Elior theorizes that the Essenes were really the renegade sons of Zadok, a priestly caste banished from the Temple of Jerusalem by intriguing Greek rulers in 2nd century B.C. When they left, they took the source of their wisdom — their scrolls — with them. "In Qumran, the remnants of a huge library were found," Elior says, with some of the early Hebrew texts dating back to the 2nd century B.C. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest known version of the Old Testament dated back to the 9th century A.D. "The scrolls attest to a biblical priestly heritage," says Elior, who speculates that the scrolls were hidden in Qumran for safekeeping. (See pictures of Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land.)

Elior's theory has landed like a bombshell in the cloistered world of biblical scholarship. James Charlesworth, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls project at Princeton Theological Seminary and an expert on Josephus, says it is not unusual that the word Essenes does not appear in the scrolls. "It's a foreign label," he tells TIME. "When they refer to themselves, it's as 'men of holiness' or 'sons of light.' " Charlesworth contends that at least eight scholars in antiquity refer to the Essenes. One proof of Essene authorship of the Dead Sea Scrolls, he says, is the large number of inkpots found by archaeologists at Qumran.

But Elior claims says these ancient historians, namely Philo and Pliny the Elder, either borrowed from each other or retailed second-hand stories as fact. "Pliny the Elder describes the Essenes as 'choosing the company of date palms' beside the Dead Sea. We know Pliny was a great reader, but he probably never visited Israel," she says.

Elior is braced for more criticism of her theory. "Usually my opponents have only read Josephus and the other classical references to the Essenes," she says. "They should read the Dead Sea Scrolls — all 39 volumes. The proof is there."

Study Chic

Like exercising, I find music helpful when studying. If I am reading, I need something mellow.
If writing, I need a steady beat to keep me on pace. Much like when running. It helps to
keep it on repeat so I don't get into the lyrics.
For this session, Mos Def- "Broooklyn We Go Hard"
I also have to go somewhere where I cannot connect to the internet. I do not trust myself to simply turn of the
wireless. Too easy to turn back on. And, My back has to be turned away from people
What can I say? I'm a scatter brain and my attention scatters easily.
Like typing this update in notepad to copy and paste for later. smh. -Ria

studying hard

Janelle Monae

Added to list, I WILL see this lady in concert this summer.


Janelle Monae - "Violet Stars" (live @ The Mondrian/Grammy Week) from tunji balogun on Vimeo.

Alice Smith is the best singer you’ve never heard of.

Alice Smith is the best singer you’ve never heard of.

By Black Power Staff blackpower.com

by Toure

alice-in

The best singer you’ve never heard of is Alice Smith, a tall, black soul singer from Brooklyn with a four-octave range in a voice than can go from sultry smooth to operatic power. You won’t find her videos on MTV or BET, but you will find her singing in little places like the Blue Note in Manhattan, the Tin Angel in Philly, or the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC (check her website for when she’ll be near you-she has five new dates in January). Her 2006 debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me, was named after a line that Kermit the Frog sung in his sentimental classic, “The Rainbow Connection”-a reference that tells you how much of a romantic Alice is. She’ll have a new album out this spring (it’s not yet named, but she says it won’t be inspired by the Muppets this time).

There’s a bit of a Norah Jones/Lisa Loeb vibe to Smith-you get the sense that she’s a music nerd who spends time honing her talent and her songs rather than learning dance moves and picking outfits. Indeed, Smith does not dance or drape on designers Beyonce would love, even though Smith, like Ms. Knowles-Carter, has some striking curves in her hourglass figure. I’ve met Smith a few times-she lives in Brooklyn not far from me with her boyfriend, musician Citizen Cope, so I emailed her directly. No need to go through people-I’m not sure she has them.

“I came to singing organically,” she told me of her start. In college she says she started singing backup “randomly.” Then five years ago lightning struck. “I realized that I didn’t want to do anything else. Plus, I realized I was good, and, most importantly, I actually loved to sing on stage.” Now she’s doing more than 100 shows a year. I think it’s interesting that she remembers the moment she realized she was good. “I started to like my voice, the sound of it. So then I started to listen to it as something separate. To me it sounded good that way as well.”

Smith does soul as it should be done: as a next-door neighbor to the blues, with all the necessary melancholy and honest emotion. Her debut sounded like something I might find when fingering through my parents’ music collection so it’s no surprise that she listens mostly to old music and her list of favorite singers includes Eartha Kitt, Judy Garland, Dinah Washington, and the incomparable Nina Simone. (Shouldn’t all singers be required to study Nina?)

Smith says, “I like to focus on making the music sound simple and true, and very lush and full. I think music should take you to somewhere else where you have the space to contemplate or exercise your imagination. All the while you should be feeling real good, like when you have a delicious and decadent meal, macaroni and cheese or foie gras. So that’s what I want to for my music, too.”

reprint from thedailybeast.com

Chat-n-Chew

I hate being ignored. Even if it is with good cause or is not personal. I hate it.

In other news, today I met with a professor and a classmate to discuss a paper we have due on Monday. It proved to be quite fruitful I think. The class is on Bantu Diasporas. Bantu refers specifically to several groups of people across Central Africa who speak languages which have linguistically been linked to one anther. It's about 600 language groups and the overwhelming majority use the term "Bantu" to mean "the people" so that's what it gets called. Anyhow, the paper is on the mode and method of research used thus far to delve into this subject realm. As far as history is concerned, it's a fairly new area of interest. I think I will more so focus on the specific terminology used in research thus far in regards to the people being studied. The overt detachment researchers in the 60's and 70's displayed when speaking of the people is disgustingly horrific. Yet, today we must use their racism laced writings to base our new notions off of. This makes little sense to me. I will propose for a new method and mode of interpreting history from this area beginning with a thorough study of how the people view their own history. This includes the laymen as well as their academics. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

This same professor is also my adviser for my master's studies. Exciting. I am thinking I would like to do my thesis on Capoeira and it's Angola origins or on the thorough assimilation of African slaves into Mexican society, so much so that no realizes they were ever really there. Interesante, no?

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Im beginning to love the imperfections of my body