Philip F. Esler > Quotes

“Sometime in the second century bce a discovery was made that would eventually sap the basis of Nabatean wealth, so that by the mid first century ce the overland route through Petra had largely ended. A Greek helmsman named Hippalus discovered the existence of the monsoon that allowed boats to sail directly between Aden and India. This opened up an alternative means to bring spices and perfumes from the east to the west (Rome especially) that entailed bypassing the overland routes controlled by the Nabateans.”
― Philip F. Esler, Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold

“While many Arab tribes use the desert as pasture, ‘the Nabataeans far surpass the others in wealth although they are not much more than ten thousand in number’. Their wealth derives from the frankincense, myrrh, and other valuable spices which they bring down to the sea and which they procure from those who convey them from Arabia Felix (the southwest part of the peninsula).”
― Philip F. Esler, Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold

“The capacity of a legal document to give vent to underlying social issues of pressing importance to the indigenous actors allows us an unusual opportunity to step into their lost world. They constitute fine ‘traces’ for the disclosure of ‘clues’ that prove indispensable in getting to the bottom of certain situations and relations.”
― Philip F. Esler, Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold

“…our knowledge of the [Nabatean] kingdom suffers from the fact that not a single historical work or passage survives from a Nabatean author.”
― Philip F. Esler, Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold

“Social history “… does not feature the comparative situating of its findings in the wider universe of anthropological research that is integral to ethnography...”
― Philip F. Esler, Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold

“No ethnographer in the present day operates in the possession of complete information.”
― Philip F. Esler, Babatha's Orchard: The Yadin Papyri and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale Retold