the renegade sons of Zadok
Rachel Elior, a scholar who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, says the Essenes, a factional religious group long thought responsible for writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, never existed.
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.”
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.
Predator X
A giant fossil sea monster found in the Arctic and known as “Predator X” had a bite that would make T-Rex look feeble, scientists said Monday.
The 50 ft (15 meter) long Jurassic era marine reptile had a crushing 33,000 lbs (15 tonnes) per square inch bite force, the Natural History Museum of Oslo University said of the new find on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
“With a skull that’s more than 10 feet long you’d expect the bite to be powerful but this is off the scale,” said Joern Hurum, an associate professor of vertebrate paleontology at the museum who led the international excavation in 2008.
“It’s much more powerful than T-Rex,” he said of the pliosaur reptile that would have been a top marine predator.
Won’t you be my neighbor?
“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like, if each of us offered as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person… One kind word has a wonderful way of turning into many.” -Fred Rogers
Tomorrow, March 20, is Mr. Rogers birthday. People all over the world are invited to participate by wearing a sweater, listening to someone, or doing something thoughtful. Since I’m from Pittsburgh, I’ll be celebrating. More information about the day is here, but turn down the volume before you click.
consider yourself kissed
My left nipple is firm and alert. My right nipple is soft. I like it.
work in progress, 29
As if the sunflowers needed to be contained. As if the fact that they were separated made them more abstract. As if the utmost importance was the paint that made the wall or table that they sat on — the vase they sat in must be as substantial as if the background were made from smaller bricks. As if the air that surrounds the flowers could catch fire. As if all this, in paint, were possible. Or the possibility that the painting serves the fact of separating the flower from the stalk, the way he took a knife and walked among them and held the blade against the stalk and pulled it toward his thumb. His yellow house. For a moment he imagined that the sky around it glowed. He had been poisoned! He was sure of it. And now they lay upon the table. There was nothing to be done.
tweet | tweet tweet
Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem perform “Rockin’ Robin”. (The Muppet Show)
Ratata (stupid typos) Ratatat
via Monoscope
Pretentious
Snapshot of a reproduction of a late nineteenth-century stock photograph.
“It seems so pretentious,” he said, “to display an image of the Parthenon in your bathroom.”
So he propped it on an easel and set it atop the microwave.
Pure Evil™
The Truth about Goats and Sheep
Cake – Sheep Go to Heaven
WWWD
I just walked on water.
The World Needs More of This Kind o’ Irony
Word Cloud of Facebook users’ attitudes towards the new Facebook
From ReadWriteWeb (thanks, Dale)
6 Years in Iraq: A Timeline in Images
The Iraq War began six years ago today. Talking Points Memo has put together a timeline in images.
I knew this would be in Texas
When I saw the headline — High school held cage fights for troubled students — I knew it would be in Texas.
Dolphins Blowing Bubbles
Clusterflockenwalken
So far through Twitter searches, I have heard us described as a “viral marketing team”, an “elaborate hoax” and “pranksters.”
I hope this website isn’t an elaborate hoax because I just bought my ticket to Clusterflockstock.
work in progress, 28
“Dear Theo,”
work in progress, 27
What he learned has been discarded. A sort of decadence, as if no one must know. The air, of course, is cool — he puts his hat back on, feels the space between two ribs, measured with two fingers.
graffiti
four moons cross Uranus Saturn
the unintended consequences of marketing
During a commercial break, I was told:
Lie to Me, sponsored by Windows.
now and then
The photo’s brilliance is in the head tilt.
Alright, time to work your caption mojo, flockers.
Let’s Take A Field Trip!
This flyer appeared yesterday in the hospital cafeteria. Seeing it was the best thing that has happened to me at work in a very long time.
