Emmet,
We are covering lots of ground on this thread. I wonder if we need a new one. Anyway....
You wrote:(aleph) "Second Temple Judaism" is conventional scholastic nomenclature for post-exilic/prerabbinic Judaism. Even if the Enochian and Essene traditions looked to a restoration of the temple cultus, they were participants in the Second Temple-era spectrum of Judaisms.
No one knows when the Enochian tradition began. Its adherents would say "from the beginning" much in the same way Orthodox Jews believe their traditions come in direct lineage from Moses. The Essenes existed by the time of the Maccabees. How far back their roots go is also unknown. Afaik, all sects within Judaism made the claim that their sect was the oldest and purest, etc.
You also wrote:As for the correlation of these movements with First Temple Judaism - one may invoke the example of some "bible Christians" who imagine themselves to be part of "the New Testament church," when (despite their best intentions and deepest wishes) they are part-and-parcel of contemporary American Christianity; although they derive inspiration from the past model, many of these Christians' basic assumptions and patterns of thought are established by intervening influences, alien to the past tradition. Even those who seek to reclaim the past do not fully escape their present.
This example fails due to simple math.
423BC - 353BC = 70 years.
Even using the older date for the destruction of the temple:
586BC - 353BC = 233 years.
Second Temple Judaisms were only about about 233 years removed (using the earlier dating of First Temple destruction) and were, possibly, a mere 70 years away.
2007AD - 33AD = 1,974 years ("you missed it by
that much")
bbl
Later that next day....
2007AD - 233 years = 1774AD
Since 2 years before this country's independence the changes that happened then, prior to then, and ever since, are there for all to see. The evolution and heritages of political and religious ideas (parties and movements) are easily discernable; the lineages are intact. Therefore, seeing that Second Temple Judaisms were proximal in time to First Temple Judaism(s?) -- as current Americans are to their date of Independence; your "argument from time" is rebutted. Anyway, I rest my case on this one!
I concur that some who claim "New Testament Christianity" are way off base. The math broke down your argument, however. Have a Nice day.
bbl, Emmet
