Endnote 2 – Searching for Essenes at Ein Gedi, Not Qumran

Glen Bowersock of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, has recently argued (in a paper given at Columbia University in October 2001) that the site Pliny is referring to is south of Ein Gedi. In his view, infra can mean either north or south, depending on the maritime reference in the particular context. Here Ein Gedi should be understood to lie north of the Essene site; hence, the Essene site is south of Ein Gedi. In Bowersock’s words, “If Pliny is following the usage that emerges from other parts of his work as well as from Strabo’s Geography, he ought perhaps to be understood as saying that En Gedi lay to the north of the Essenes. Since that site is in fact located south of Qumran, this interpretation would provide support for those who deny the identification of the Essene community with it.” Bowersock concludes there is not the “slightest possibility” that “infra” refers to “geographical elevation.”