WEAVING THE CONNECTIONS

WEAVING THE CONNECTIONS

The Newsletter of the Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine

Volume 12 Winter 2006 Number 3

Jesus’ Era and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Eleanor Rae

Those of us who were raised in the Christian tradition sometimes seem to be unaware that the One we worship as God was born, lived and died as a Jew. To a large extent, this may be the result of the fact that Jesus left no written words. In addition, the words that the Church did come to accept as belonging to Jesus were contained in gospels that were written for non-Jewish audiences (the one exception is the Gospel of Matthew). Furthermore, they were written starting approximately forty years after his death. The little that we previously knew about Jesus’ era was based primarily on two sources: the writing of the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus and the Jewish philosopher and exegete, Philo of Alexandria.

Thus, the discovery in 1947 of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were dated from approximately 250 BC through 68 AD, has provided us with a unique opportunity to deepen our knowledge of the times when Jesus walked Earth. The documents were discovered by three Bedouin shepherds who were attending their flocks not far from Jerusalem (but it is only recently that these documents have been made available to the general public). In a moment of quiet, the youngest shepherd tossed a small stone into a near-by opening of a small cave and heard the scattering of pottery. This led to the finding—in eleven different caves in what is now the West Bank of Israel—of 50,000 fragments. Included in these fragments were all or parts of the books of the Hebrew Bible, with the exception of Esther. Also included were other religious texts and what we might nowadays refer to as secular texts that governed the daily living of the community. A contemporary analysis of these Biblical fragments, which predate any previously known Hebrew text by a millennium, has involved many of the techniques of modern science (including using DNA testing of hair follicles to match the scrolls and employing the same technology that was used to reconstruct the shredded Enron documents). Such an analysis has served to largely confirm the accuracy of later translations, as well as to attest to a more fluid development of Judaism than was previously understood.

On November 26, 2006, I had the opportunity to view some of these scrolls at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. In addition to the scrolls, the exhibited devoted much space to artifacts that presented a picture of the life of their writers. Many scholars think that the inhabitants of the caves were a sect of Jewish men, known as the Essenes, who had separated themselves from Jerusalem and mainstream Judaism. They seem to have been awaiting the end times. If we think of present day Israel, I believe that we can get a sense of the ferment that was present in this long ago community. It would seem, then, that we can deepen our understanding of today’s picture in Israel through an appreciation of the ancient scrolls. As Bruce Zuckerman, a scroll expert at the University of Southern California has stated: “If you want to understand the religious fault lines that govern so much of what happens in the modern world, it helps to excavate back to the ancient fault lines.”

Furthermore, the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls presents each of us with the following challenge—do we remove ourselves and live in ritual purity, awaiting the end times, or do we join Wisdom in the public places, engaging in the issues of the day, as Jesus did?

“Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice; on the top of the walls she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:” (Proverbs 1:20-21).

Submitted to the UN for the 51^st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

To Be Held in New York City, Submitted to the UN for the 51^st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

To Be Held in New York City,

February 26-Mach 9, 2007

On the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

and Violence Against the Girl Child

We, the undersigned international and national non-governmental organisations in consultative status with ECOSOC, members of the Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women, present to the 51^st session of CSW the following statement for information and consideration:

We urge governments to fulfill their commitment to international conventions, treaties and agreements, by the development and implementation of appropriate laws that guarantee the protection of the girl child from abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect.

Ensure that law enforcement has adequate resources and training to respond to violence against the girl child, to respond quickly to incidents of violence with compassion, understanding and respect, and to patrol of public places and streets;

Provide timely and effective resources and appropriate support to victims of violence including safe shelter and free access to medical and psychological treatment;

Introduce and enforce legislation making religious and traditional practices which harm girls illegal, including female genital mutilation, underage marriages and forced abortion;

Severely penalize those who benefit from the sexual exploitation of the girl child, including prostitution, sex tourism, pornography, mail order brides and exploitation via the internet.

We urge governments to do their utmost to secure the safety of the girl child from acts of violence and to give assistance to overcome the consequences when violence does occur, and to:

Implement special services for the girl child who is a victim of any form of sexual exploitation;

Create or strengthen the mechanisms for reporting acts of violence in a safe and confident environment;

Provide effective witness protection;

Support gender specific research into the causes and best practices in addressing violent behaviour; disseminate the results and act on the recommendations.

The member organizations of the Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women furthermore urge governments to:

Develop legislation and programmes aimed at the eradication of the exploitation of the girl child;
Ensure access to education and sufficient nutrition for the girl child
Protect the girl child against physical, sexual or emotional abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation;
Provide particular care for the girl child living on the streets, for refugees and victims of war.

Signatures:

European Union of Women

Hadassah the Women’s Zionist Organization of America and Hadassah International

International Council of Jewish Woman

International Council of Women

International Federation for Home Economics

International Federation of Business and Professional Women

National Council of German Women’s Organizations

Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women’s Association of Thailand

Servas International

Socialist International Women

Text Box: Soroptimist International

Earth: Institute of Peace

Jane Blewett

(This article originally appeared in the summer 1993 issue of “Peaceweaving”, a publication that weaves into every avenue of life in whatever way possible our dreams for and struggle to bring about the peaceable kin-dom here and now.)

First and foremost, peace is the fruit of right order between humans and Earth. Our primary alienation from Earth itself sets a framework into which other alien actions easily fit. If dumping, polluting, poisoning soil, water, and air are necessary for “a way of life,” if extinguishing species, committing biocide and even genocide, is the “price of progress,” then why not homicide and genocide? If we can rip and rape our Earth home with impunity, then why not women and children? The forests must go, the spotted owl must go, the ozone layer must be torn asunder, so humans can continue their “domination.”

Earth, on the other hand, teaches us something quite different. It is a “peace institute” that surrounds us every minute of our lives. If we look closely, we discover that it is not by competition and exploitation, domination and control, and survival of the fittest that Earth has evolved over these billions of years. Rather it is by immense projects of co-operation, co-ordination, patient grouping and searching, one species linked in the life-and-death fashion to another, that life in its great diversity and richness has endured. Over eons of time, the thrust is toward life, the paschal mystery, in seasons and cycle, night and day, fallow land and full bloom.

Violence is there on the journey but it is a creative violence, not to wreak destruction but to bring forth the new. A powerful burst of lightning strikes a forest and it bursts into flame. Soon nothing but a field of charred stumps remains, violent death all around. But wait…what do we discover? In time, the message is clear. Only through the intense heat of such a fire can certain seeds be released from their casing, fall to the ground and be born anew. Lightning is midwife to the birthing, to new life emerging. How different a message this is from the violence of a charred Hiroshima or the wasted victim of a “Saturday night special”…violence unto death.

Probably no word is used more in the context of peace than the word “security.” In fact, under the guise of national security—to secure our way of life, that is—the US government spends millions daily to research, develop, produce, sell and buy the most sophisticated, destructive weapons of all time. We are told that if we just have enough of the right kind of arms, we will be safe and no other nation or threat will preempt our number-one-spot. It is a cruel delusion that takes its toll most heavily on the poor, both people and Earth.

By contrast, Earth is a great school of learning in this regard. For starters, in the Earth community there are no “number ones.” No one species’ way of life is preferred at the cost of all others, at least not in the long term. Instead, Earth teaches that the greater the diversity, the greater the security. It is a lesson every gardener learns sooner or later, the more variety in the garden, the more likely a rich harvest. Monocultures or strands of single-species trees that can be wiped out by a lone insect are not nature’s recipe. No matter how our giant paper companies do their “tree planting,” it cannot replace a real forest.

If the work of building peace has everything to do with “righting wrong relationships” then each of us is challenged to new ways of human-Earth bonding, to go beyond stewardship to partnership and even friendship. It is a lesson we humans do well to ponder.

Jane Blewett, who recently retired, when asked what she does all day, answers: I DO LIFE! LIFE just happens and that’s what I do!

Associates of C:WED:

Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., founder

Anne Andersson, editor

Giles E. Rae, publisher

Representatives at the United Nations:

New York: Rosalyn Dischiavo

Lina Gupta, Ph.D.

Helena Miele

Alayne O’Reilly, Ph.D.

Vienna: Susanne Schaup, Ph.D.

Mission Statement

The Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine is dedicated to exploring the parallels that exist between the imaging and treatment of women and of the Earth, and how our images of the Divine are related to these parallels.

We began by exploring these relationships within the context of our own tradition— the Christian. While we continue our exploration in this tradition, we have also engaged people of other traditions such as the Buddhist, Goddess, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish and Muslim. Our work is made available through talks, workshops, writings and retreats. The immediate purpose of the Center is educational, while the ultimate goal is the healing of the Creation.

The founder of C:WED is Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., author of Women, the Earth, the Divine, President Emerita of the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology and founder of the Earth Values Caucus at the United Nations.

As long as I live,

I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.

I’ll interpret the rocks,

learn the language of flood, storm and the avalanche.

I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens,

and get as near to the heart of the world as I can.

John Muir

6/4/2007

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