שוב ל'משיח' מקומראן

The rejoinder suffers from the same shortcomings of his book: tendentious and misleading quotations. He quotes a meaningless radiocarbon date which was done also in an outdated method and omits to tell his readers opinions of eminent scholars (Starcky, Strugnell) disagreeing with him. He fails also to mention that Cross puts 4Q427 also in wide brackets, 75-1 BCE. However, the up-to-date radiocarbon tests show unequivocally that the hymns were copied (and of course composed) at the latest at 51 BCE, half a century before the events they are supposed to reflect. The idea that the Essenes were influenced by the Emperor's cult is grossly farfetched. Roman influence on Palestinian Jews was minimal (of 10,000 non-Semitic inscriptions found in the country, only 500 are Latin, most of which postdate the Second Commonwealth). It is unthinkable that an extreme, isolationist Jewish sect will borrow basic religious concepts from pagan cult. If Knohl wanted a candidate for a possible messianic figure he could have chosen the second-century BCE 'Teacher of Righteousness'. But he was keen to tie the Qumranic hymns to those of Virgil. Therefore he chose a certain Essene called Menahem mentioned by Josephus and another man by the same name mentioned in the Mishna in a foggy context. With these dubious materials he wove what seems to be a fictional historical novel.