@Davïd Done, and I'm glad my attention was drawn back to this question of mine. I took some time to examine your answer more carefully. It was very well done, and I wish I had accepted it sooner (except I forgot about it among all the busy-ness of life).

@ScottS Thanks! And not to worry -- there is some strong fellow-feeling about that "busy-ness" thing! It was helpful for me, too: a good tag-team! :)

Hello chat people. Im a little unsure of protocols on stacks exchanges. Do comments become discussions? Or do you you just say your piece and leave it at that? What if a question topic opens related matters. Do you expand your thoughts in the comment area, or do you start another question and hope readers connect the two?

ps. Where am I? Is the library a temporary chat room or do our posts stick here forever? (lol)

@ChristianGedge Hi, and welcome :)

comments here persist forever and are searchable on Google so it pays to exercise dome discretion ;)

this room is a much better place for discussions, or you can set up another room if you prefer

@ChristianGedge Hi! As I understand (always open to correction and revision), "comments" on the main site Q&A can be temporary, intended to provide some direct and focused interaction on that material. There's some guidance and info in the Help pages. Those comments can be deleted from public view.

@Davïd Thanks for the “auto-“ comment contribution, by the way. Although we both know that conversation was going to go nowhere constructive.... I was almost tempted to UV the answer anyway just because I’m so tired of that question being Community ♦ bumped, but....

@ChristianGedge Here, in "The Library", we have a chat room -- not the best name/analogue for a chat room, perhaps, but thus it has been ordained. Would be happy to have a natter with you about matters raised on your recent "chronology", post for instance - if that's of interest to you.

@Susan Glad it helped. I broke one of my cardinal rules about "not feeding...", but couldn't help myself.

@anyone: So my ESV study bible (an amazing resource for anyone of that persuasion who is interested in analysis on that level; I can’t quite figure out how they do it for $30) states, in the article on “Reliability of Old Testament manuscripts” (Paul Wegner) re. DSS:

> The largest number of these texts agree closely with the readings of the proto-MT (35 percent of manuscripts) and help confirm the accuracy of the MT.

Anybody have any idea where he got that 35% or what it means exactly? If it’s the ‘largest number’ presumably there are 4 or more groups - agree with (proto-)MT | agree with (hypothesized vorlage) of the LXX | agree with both | agree with neither - where the first and third groups add up to 35%? I didn’t know such hard numbers existed and would like to see the methodology.

One disadvantage of this sort of resource is the lack of references, which is apparently acceptable in this context but seems almost egregious for a claim like that.

@Susan I'm quite sure he got those numbers from Emanuel Tov (see p. 115). Might be more in this essay.

@Susan And yes, the lack of referencing would be a frustration for writer and reader alike, I'm guessing.

@Davïd Wow, you’re a helpful person to have around.

@Davïd :-)

^^^ Garnering some "upvotes" to my comments for the constructive criticism I am attempting to give to the answerer on that question.

Hi, just wondering if this question would be on-topic here: christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/40777/…

@DavidStratton Presumably you can see my flag and know my opinion, but yes, I think so (along with several of his other questions). If you’re looking for another opinion, probably someone will weigh in here.

@DavidStratton Definitely on topic here.

@ScottS Duly garnered. I hope your input is taken on board.

@Susan Not in contexts where it actually matters. :)

Speaking of which, I hadn't noticed until just now that biology.se had "graduated". So it can happen!

@Davïd I don’t follow that, nor the connection with the next line.

@Susan Well, if I was, say gasping for breath and clutching my chest...

@Davïd A couple days ago, I think. I lost some privileges.

@Susan Because it graduated?

@Davïd Yes. 2k privileges -->10k.

@Susan Ahhhh... I was not aware of that. We better stay in beta in that case. (Not that there's any danger of graduation!)

@Susan And who even knew there was a "Unicorn Parsing HTML w/ RegEx T-Shirt"? Wow. Talk about incentive.

@Davïd Still not exactly following, but I have a vague sense that it touches on something that will trigger a rant from me if taken any further, so I’ll drop it.

@Davïd Haha, new to me also, and it doesn’t have to be SO rep! I guess the people like me who wouldn’t understand that because they don’t have a programming background are likely to have been exposed to it be rep=200000 anyway. :-)