SIR, —My hypotheses concerning the Teacher of Righteousness' last days are
not quite so unsupported by evidence as Mr. iGwilym Griffith's amusing letter might indicate. And even 'ordinary laymen' like the writer have access to most of the evidence relevant to this particular problem. But, as his letter makes clear, any reconstruction of history in points of detail in the Qumran Sect's life must depend upon an imaginative piecing together of snippets of evidence from all sides, archwo- logical and documentary. Whilst it is quite easy to separate out those pieces and then look around in baffled inquiry for the evidence now rejected, the onus is upon such persons to offer a picture of events in the first century as convincing and well supported as the one now 'demolished.'
To return to the specific points raised .by Mr. Griffith. The cooking pots recovered near the walls of the Qumran monastery contained animal bones. The obvious conclusion drawn by the archaeologists is that these are the remains of sacred meals, and their careful preservation from destruction recalls the biblical strictures against the breaking of the Passover's victims' bones. But if Mr. Griffith can suggest some other reason for these pots with their• strange contents, we shall all be interested to hear it.
As for the tempot'ary sanctuary at Qumran, there is, besides the possible cultic significance of these remains, more, as yet unpublished, evidence, which, however, again is not by any means so conclusive as one might have wished. However, that the Teacher was a priest is certain from the Scrolls, and if he were officiating at a temporary sanctuary at Qum- ran, it would at least give one possible reason for the specific mention of its being the Day of Atonement when the Wicked Priest pur- sued after the Teacher and his followers 'in the house of his exile.' As perhaps Mr. Griffith is aware, these biblical commentaries from. Qumran, from one of which the phrase above is taken, are the nearest the Scrolls approach to a 'Gospel.' They refer to historic events in deliberately obscure terms as pointers to the great event of the future, the Day of Judge- ment, spoken of by the prophets of old. We can, therefore, at least be certain that those events ware of prime significance for the history of
the Sect, and every word of these com- mentaries is of the greatest importance. The would-be historian is thus obliged to find a reasonable explanation for every veiled allu- sion, and he must try to see it in the context of the history of the time.
Mr. Griffith, and my ecclesiastical critics who have pursued the same line, must not, then, rest content with saying that the explicit reference to crucifixion, and 'the man hanged alive upon a tree' in the Nahum commentary does not necessarily refer to the Teacher of Righteousness: they must find another, equally satisfactory, reason for the Sect's having mentioned the practice and its awful- ness. And if they can do it without importir a little 'orange' into their writing, they ha' my earnest felicitations !—Yours faithfully,
g e 0 JOHN ALLEOS
12 St. Ives Crescent, Brooklands, Sale, Cheshire
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