Dr. Gary Gromacki
Associate Professor of Bible and Homiletics
Baptist Bible Seminary
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania
<ggromacki>at<bbc>dot<edu>
INTRODUCTION
The contents of some of the DSS (the biblical scrolls) were in existence prior to the beginning of the Qumran community. The biblical DSS were either brought to Qumran or were copied there by the scribes. Other DSS manuscripts were written by the scribes of the Qumran community themselves. These original writings are sometimes referred to as the sectarian writings. These writings contain the beliefs and practices of the Qumran community. The following is a list of the major sectarian writings with some statements of the beliefs and practices of the members of the Qumran community.
THE RULE OF THE COMMUNITY (1QS)
The Rule of the Community was discovered in cave1 by the bedouin. The eleven relatively well preserved columns of this manuscript (1QS) were first published in 1951 by M. Burrows under the title “The Manual of Discipline”. The Rule of the Community is probably one of the oldest documents of the Qumran sect as the composition may have originated around 100 B.C. Ten copies of 1QS were recovered from Cave 4 and two tiny fragments of it have been discovered in Cave 5. The scroll seems to have been intended for the Community’s teachers, for its Masters or Guardians, and contains extracts from liturgical ceremonies, an outline of a tractate on the spirits of truth and falsehood, statutes concerned with initiation into the sect and with its common life, organization and discipline, a penal code, and finally a poetic dissertation on the fundamental religious duties of the Master and his disciples.
Here is an outline of the contents of the Rule of the Community:
I.
Prologue: mission statement of the community (1:1-15)
II. Admission procedures of the community (1:16-3:12)
III. Doctrinal foundation of the community (3:13-4:26)
IV. Various rules and regulations of the community (5:1-6:23)
V. Penal code of the community (6:24-7:25)
VI. Ideals of the community (8:1-9:11)
VII. Instructions and guidelines of the community (9:12-26)
VIII. Hymns summarizing the mission of the community (10:1-11:22)
THE
DAMASCUS DOCUMENT (CD, 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15)
Extensive fragments of the Damascus Document have been recovered from three
of the Qumran caves (4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15). Two incomplete medieval copies of
this document had been found in 1896 among a mass of discarded manuscripts in a
storeroom (genizah) of an old Cairo synagogue. The Damascus Document was
published in 1910 by S. Schechter and was called Fragments of a Zadokite
Work.The title Damascus
Document comes from the references in the exhortation to the “New Covenant”
made “in the land of Damascus.” The document was possibly written in 100
B.C. This hypothesis is supported by the absence of any mention in the
historical passages of the Kittim (Rome) whose invasion of Israel did not
take place until after 70 B.C.
The manuscript is divided
into two sections: an exhortation and a list of statutes. In the exhortation the preacher
addresses his “sons” on the themes of the sect’s teachings, many of which
appear in the Rule of the Community. The exhortation begins, “Listen now all you who know righteousness, and
consider the works of God; for He has a dispute with all flesh and will condemn
all those who despise Him.” He encourages them to remain faithful by retracing
the history of Israel and the Community to show that faithfulness is rewarded
and apostasy chastised. The second part of
the Damascus Document (the Statutes) consists of a collection of laws which
reflect a sectarian reinterpretation of the biblical commandments relative to
vows and oaths, tribunals, purification, the Sabbath and the distinction between
ritual purity and impurity. They are followed by rules concerned with the
institutions and organization of the Community. Some of the laws of the Damascus
Document also appear in the Temple Scroll.
The grouping of the
statutes prefigures the Mishnah, the oldest extant Jewish code. The statutes
include the form of the ritual for the Feast of the Renewal of the Covenant, so
it may be assumed that the entire Damascus Document was originally connected
with that festival. This festival coincided with the Feast of Weeks, celebrated
on the 15th day of the third month according to the sect’s
calendar.
Three Qumran caves have provided supplementary documentation to the text preserved in the Cairo Genizah. Of these the evidence furnished by Caves 5 (CD IX, 7-10) and 6 (CD IV, 19-21, V, 13-14, V, 18-VI, 2, VI, 20-VII, 1) is negligible, but the fragments discovered in Cave 4 (4Q266-273) are of the highest importance. Furthermore 4Q265 provides a kind of hybrid connecting the Damascus Document and the Community Rule.
The
4Q material represents (1) a prologue missing from CD (4Q266, fr. 1a-b; fr.2
i.1-6, combined with 4Q267 fr. 1 and 268, fr.1) and substantial legal sections
which follow the broken ending of the Statutes of CD. These laws relate to (2)
the admission or dismissal of candidates (4Q266, fr. 5) to (3) criteria for
disqualifying priests (4Q266, fr.5; 267, fr.5 ii; 273, frs, 2, 4 i) to (4)
detailed rulings concerning the diagnosis and quarantining of persons suffering
from skin disease (4Q266, fr.6; 272, fr.1); to (5) laws pertaining to gleanings
(4Q266, fr. 6, iii-iv) and to the agricultural priestly dues (4Q270, fr.3
ii-iii; 271, fr.2; 269, fr.8 i-ii); (6) a penal code partly overlapping with 1QS
VII follows (4Q266, fr.10; 270, fr.7 i; 269, fr. 11 i-ii). The two main
manuscripts (4Q266, fr.11 and 270, fr.7 i-ii) end with the ritual for the
dismissal of unworthy members used in the ceremony marking entry into and
expulsion from the Covenant. This festival was celebrated in the third month and
coincided with the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. Finally (7) the hybrid S-D
(4Q265) in which the Community Rule and the Damascus Document merge, allows a
glimpse into the interrelationship between the two main constitutional documents
of the Community.
THE RULE OF
THE CONGREGATION
(1QSa=1Q28a)
The Rule of the Congregation (1QSa) was probably written around 50
B.C. and it was first published in 1955 by D.Barthelemy. This short but complete
work presents the translator with difficulties because of its bad state of
preservation and the carelessness of the scribe
THE TEMPLE SCROLL
(11QT=11Q19, 20, 4Q365a)
The Temple Scroll was discovered in 1956 in cave 11. It
was not revealed to the public until after the Six Day War in June of 1967. It
is the longest Qumran manuscript, measuring over 28 feet. It consists of 67
columns. The major part of the scroll deals with the Temple (building and
furniture).It also deals with cultic worship, sacrifices on the Sabbath and
feasts. Most of the legislation depends upon Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
The beginning of the manuscript is badly mutilated. Column I is
mission.Columns III-XII are so fragmented that there is only a hypothetical
reconstruction. The Temple Scroll probably can be dated to 200 B.C. since the
Damascus Document and the Nahum Commentary are dependent upon it. Yigael Yadin
first published this scroll in Hebrew in 1977 and before his death in English
under the title The Temple Scroll I-III in 1983. Contents
follow the Bible, but an effort has been made to systematize, harmonize and
interpret the laws. The aim of the redactor is to present the message of the
scroll not as in interpretation of the Bible, but as an immediate divine
revelation.
1. Covenant
between God and Israel (1)
2. Building of the
Temple, measurements of the Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, the chambers and the
colonnades (2-6)
3. Description of
the mercy seat, the cherubim, the veil, the table, the golden lampstand, etc.
(7-11)
4. Outline of the
Sacrifices and the altar (11-12)
5.
Daily, weekly and monthly sacrifices and those offered on the festivals
(13-29)
6.
Buildings in the temple courtyards: the stairhouse, the house of the
laver, the house for the sacred vessels, the slaughterhouse, etc. (30-35)
7.
The three courtyards of the Temple: one for priests, one for Jewish men
over twenty years of age, and one for women and children (36-45)
8.
Purity regulations concerning the Temple and the city of the Sanctuary
(46-48)
9.
Purity regulations concerning the cities of Israel (48-51)
10. Judges and
officers (51)
11. Laws relating to
idolatry and to sacrificial animals (51-53)
12. Vows and oaths
(53-54)
13. Laws against
apostasy (54-55)
14. Laws relating to
priests and Levites and detailed statutes of the Jewish king (56-59)
15. Miscellaneous
laws regarding priestly dues, idols, witnesses, the conduct of ward, the
rebellious son, crimes punishable by ‘hanging’, and incestuous relationships
(60-66)
MMT (Some
Observances of the Law) (4Q394-9)
MMT consists of some mutilated fragments of six cave 4 manuscripts. MMT has been called an epistle, but it a kind of legal tractate.
It is addressed to
one person who is compared to King David
THE WICKED AND
THE HOLY (4Q181)
The first fragment of a document from Cave 4 which its editor has left untitled, describes in a manner similar to the Community Rule IV the respective destinies of the wicked and the holy.
PURITIES MANUSCRIPTS
4QTohorot
(Purities) A (4Q274)
This is the first of ten Cave 4 manuscripts dealing with purity matters. This document deals with uncleanness caused by bodily issues and issues of blood and with the means of its removal. Parts of fragment 3 are concerned with the uncleanness associated with juice oozing out of fruit.
4QTohorot B-C
(4Q276-7)
These two fragments deal with the biblical law of the red heifer, the ashes of which were used for the preparation of the water for the removal of uncleanness necessary for the cleansing of impurity resulting from contact with a dead body. Relevant extracts from Numbers 19 are freely quoted. The subject is also treated in MMT B 13 (4Q394 frs. 3-7 I, 16-20).
4QTohorot G
(4Q284a)
Four fragments of a
document, previously designated as Leqet (gathering), having survived in
a late Hasmonaean-early Herodian script (mid first century BCE). They deal with
matters of uncleanness affecting fruits. Only fragment 1 is translatable.
EXHORTATION BY THE MASTER ADDRESSED TO THE SONS OF DAWN (4Q298)
Eight fragments of a
manuscript which apart from its title is written in a cryptic alphabet, contain
an exhortation to a group, designated as “sons of dawn’ by the “Master”
(maskil), the title of the teacher in charge of instruction in the
Community (cf. the Community Rule). The phrase “sons of dawn” is possibly
attested in the Damascus Document XIII, 14. S. Pfann suggests that the “sons
of the dawn” (not yet “sons of light”) are newcomers to the Sect at the
earliest stages of their initiation. The exhortation recalls the opening pages
of the Damascus Document. The square script of the title is said to belong to
the second half of the first century BCE.
REGISTER OF
REBUKES
(4Q477)
Fragments of two
columns of a document contain a list of Community members rebuked for offences
against the rules. This is the only scroll fragment which reveals the names of
individual members. According to Esther, Eshel, responsible for the preliminary
edition of this work, the rebukes listed here were read out in public by the mebaqqer
(or Guardian) hence the title given by her, The Rebukes by the Overseer.
Vermes believes that the rebukes originated with witnesses of the offence. They
reported it to the Guardian who was to record the infringement.
REMONSTRANCES
(4Q471)
This small fragment, written in Herodian script, contains reproofs addressed in the second person plural to a group of wicked Jews. The context is that of a war. It is unlikely to belong to the War Scroll or the Rule of War as neither of these includes speeches to outsiders. Esther Eshel and Menahem Kister believe that the opponents of the sect that are criticized are the ruling class of Judea (Hasmoneans and perhaps also Sadducees), but nothing in the text supports this view. The second half of the fragment can be interpreted in a positive sense in which case the scene may be a last minute mass conversion of unfaithful Jews before the final battle.
THE HYMNS SCROLL (1QH)
The Hymns Scroll was
published by Sukenik in 1954-1955. It has suffered a good deal of deterioration
and the translator has difficulty, not only in making sense of the poems, but
also in determining where one ends and another begins. E. Puech has observed
that the first three columns of the original Hymns Scroll are lost. The missing
beginning should be followed by the existing columns in the following order:
XVIII (sheet 1), XIII-XVI (sheet 2), I-IV (sheet 3), V-VIII (sheet 4), and
IX-XII of the editio princeps. Four further columns (XXI-XXIV) may be
reconstructed with the help of the former col. XVIII and various fragments
published by Sukenik.
The poems in the
Scroll are similar to the biblical Psalms. They are mostly hymns of
thanksgiving, individual prayers as opposed to those intended for communal
worship, expressing a rich variety of spiritual and doctrinal detail. The two
fundamental themes running through the whole collection are salvation and
knowledge.The author thanks God continually for having been saved from the
‘lot’ of the wicked, and for his gift of insight into the divine mysteries.
He, a creature of clay, has been singled out by his Maker to receive favors of
which he feels himself unworthy and he alludes again and again to his frailty
and total dependence upon God. Some of the Hymns give expression to thoughts and
feelings common to all members of the Sect. Others (No. 1, 2, 7-11) refer to the
experiences of a teacher abandoned by his friends and persecuted by his enemies.
Several scholars believe that these were written by the Teacher of
Righteousness. Others believe that he wrote all of the hymns. It is impossible
to know for sure and it is also difficult to date these hymns.
Philo’s account of
the banquet celebrated by the contemplative Essense (Therapeutae) on the Feast
of Pentecost may indicate when these Hymns were used. He reports that when the
president of the meeting had ended his commentary on the Scriptures, he rose and
chanted a hymn, either one of his own making or an old one, and after him each
of this brethren did likewise. (The Contemplative Life, 80). It is also
probable that these psalms were recited by the Guardian and newly initiated
members at the Feast of the Renewal of the Covenant. Hymn 5 (formerly 22)
appears to be a poetic commentary on the liturgy marking the entry into the
Community.
SONGS FOR THE
HOLOCAUST OF THE SABBATH (4Q400-407, 11Q17)
Fragments of a
document concerned with heavenly worship were first published by J. Strugnell
under the title “The Angelic Liturgy”. The eight manuscripts from Cave 4
(4Q400-407), small fragments from Cave 11 (11Q17), and a large fragment from
Masada (1039-200) was edited by Carol Newsom (Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice:
A Critical Edition, Harvard Semitic Studies 27, Atlanta, 1985).
The songs contain
angelic praises of God assigned to the first thirteen Sabbaths, i.e. the first
quarter of the solar year. They imply the simultaneity of heavenly and earthly
worship. Although often obscure, the poems depict the celestial sanctuary, the
throne chariot, and the various groups participating in the angelic liturgy;
they also include the words of the benedictions sung by the seven archangels.
The main source of
inspiration is the Book of Ezekiel, especially chapters 1 and 10 in connection
with the throne chariot and 40-43 for the heavenly sanctuary.
The songs include nothing that can be dated. On the basis of the script
and on general grounds the composition is said to belong to the first century
BC.
The Merkabah,
or divine throne chariot, was a central subject in ancient and medieval Jewish
esotericism and mysticism. This
early post-biblical manifestation of the speculation is of considerable
historical importance for the study of the so called Merkabah mysticism and of
the Hekhaloth (“heavenly palaces”) literature. It is noteworthy that the
Mishnah prohibits the use of Ezekiel’s passage about the chariot as a
prophetic reading in synagogue (Megillah IV, 10) or even in its discussion in
private, unless with a sage already familiar with the subject (Hagigah 11, 1).
The presence of this
Qumran document in the fortress of Masada is best explained by assuming either
than a number of Essenes joined the revolutionaries and took with them some of
their manuscripts, or that the rebels occupied the Qumran area after its
evacuation by the Community and later transferred some Essene manuscripts to
their final place of resistance.
POETIC FRAGMENTS ON JERUSALEM AND KING JONATHAN (4Q448)
Written in a very difficult semi-cursive script, this text has been
brilliantly deciphered by Ada Yardeni and edited by Esther and Hanan Eshel.
The top part of the
fragment, or column A, preserving the first two or three words of ten lines, is
an unknown Hallelujah psalm. However, the last three lines have been identified
by Eshel and Kister as belonging to the last verses of Psalm 154, included in
the Psalms Scroll from 11Q, and partly reconstructed from the Syriac and ending
with an allusion to God’s presence in Zion- Jerusalem.
Column B, with its
nine lines, is complete. It opens with a reference to the Holy City, associated
with King Jonathan, but the main theme appears to be a blessing of God’s
kingdom and name on behalf of the entire people of Israel.
Column C, with the
second half of each of its nine lines missing, also mentions Israel, together
with God’s name and kingdom, as well as what seems to be ‘the day of war.”
The editors believe that they can read Jonathan in line 8, but this is far from
certain.
4Q448 is a unique
and significant Qumran text of historical importance. The editors assume that
King Jonathan is Alexander Jannaeus or Yannai, a Hasmonaean ruler who is
presumed by scholars to have been hostile to the Qumran Community. They
conjecture, therefore that 4Q448 is not a sectarian composition. Vermes prefers
to identify King Jonathan as Jonathan Maccabaeus at the start of his
political-military career, when he was celebrated as the liberator of the Jews
and of Jerusalem, and link this text to the statement of the Habakkuk commentary
in VIII, 8-9, concerning the good behavior ‘when he first arose’ of the
ruler who was to become the Wicked Priest.
CALENDARS, LITURGIES AND PRAYERS
CALENDARS OF
PRIESTLY COURSES
(4Q320-30)
Eleven fragmentary
manuscripts from cave 4 present in various forms the peculiar ‘solar’
calendar- constructed in six year sequences- of the Qumran Community. Their year
consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, plus four extra days added to
each of the four seasons. Some documents from 4Q (320 and 321) attempt to
combine this calendar with the various priestly courses which served in turn in
the Temple for a week at a time from one Sabbath to the following Friday. They
also combine it with the dates of the full moon given according to the days of
the week of duty of the priestly course, the date of the solar month and the
equivalent date of the lunar calendar of mainstream Judaism (a year of twelve
months of 29 or 30 days = 354 days). The full moon falls ‘On the 5th
day in the week of Jedaiah, corresponding to the 29th day of the
lunar month, which falls on the 30th day of the 1st solar
month.’ 4Q321 records in addition the occurrence of the New Moon. “And the
New Moon is on the third day in the week of Mijamin which is on the twelfth day
in the eighth month.”
The badly mutilated
remains of 4Q322-4b record the names of the political figures, Jewish and Roman,
as well as dated historical events in a calendar of priestly courses. “In the
seventh month the week of Gamul, Aemilius killed…” Yet others specify the
dates of Sabbaths and festivals or list the priestly courses on duty in the
first week of the year and in the first week of each of the four yearly seasons
(4Q325, 327, and 328).
CALENDAR SIGNS
(4Q319)
The so called Otot
or “Signs” document was copied as the continuation of 4Qse (4Q259).
Whether it was part of the original composition is as debatable as the
attachment of a calendar to MMT at 4Q394 1-2.
4Q319 represents a
calendrical system based on the weekly rotation of the twenty four priestly
courses during a six yea period and constructed into six consecutive Jubilees,
294 years. The ‘sign’ which recurs in every three years probably identifies
the years in which the shorter lunar year of 354 days is supplemented by means
of the intercalation of an extra month of 30 days (3 x 354 + 30 = 1,092) to
equal the length of three ‘solar’ years of 364 days each (3 x 364 = 1,092).
HOROSCOPES
(4Q186, 4Q534, 4Q561)
Three documents from
Cave 4, one in Hebrew and two in Aramaic, all dating probably to the end of the
first century BC, contain fragments of ‘horoscopes’ relating the features
and destiny of a person with the configuration of the stars at the time of his
birth. The Hebrew text published by J. M. Allegro (4Q186) is written in a
childish cipher. The text runs from left to right instead of the normal right to
left and uses, in addition to the current square Hebrew alphabet, letters
borrowed from the archaic Hebrew (or Phoenician) and Greek scripts. The
spiritual qualities of three individuals described in the work are reflected in
their share of Light and Darkness. The first man is very wicked: eight parts of
Darkness to a single part of Light. The second man is very good: six parts of
Light against three parts of Darkness. The last is almost perfect: eight parts
of Light and only one of Darkness. As far as physical characteristics are
concerned, shortness, fatness, and irregular features are associated with
wickedness, their opposites reflect virtue.
In the astrological
terminology of the document, the second Column doubtless means the ‘second
House’and a birthday ‘in the foot of the Bull’ should probably be
interpreted as the presence of the sun in the lower part of the constellation
Taurus.
The first Aramaic
horoscope (4Q534) is according to J. Starcky that of the final Prince of the
Congregation or Royal Messiah. According to Vermes, the text alludes to the
miraculous birth of Noah and it has therefore been placed together with the
other Noah literature. The other Aramaic horoscope (4Q561) is too short to allow
an identification but it is unlikely to refer to Noah as the qualities seem to
be in some middle position between good and evil.
Whether the
sectaries forecast the future by means of astrology or merely used horoscope
like compositions as literary devices, is impossible to decide at present,
though Vermes favors the latter view. Many Jews frowned on astrology, but
others, such as Hellenistic Jewish writer Eupolemus credited its invention to
Abraham!
PHASES OF THE
MOON (4Q317)
Seventy six fragments of an astronomical text written in a cryptic alphabet
record the phases of the moon, divided into 1/14ths of the full size of the
moon, over the consecutive days of a 364 day solar calendar. J. T. Milik has
reconstructed a fourteen line section, based on fragments I ii, 2-14 and
supplemented with smaller fragments.
A ZODIACAL
CALENDAR WITHA BRONTOLOGION (4Q318)
A fascinating but
unfortunately fragmentary calendar indicates the passage of the moon through the
various Zodiacal signs during the successive months of the year from Nisan to
Adar. The fragment begins with the month of Tevet, continues with Tishri and
ends with Adar. The last four lines of columns VIII have preserved a brontologion,
i.e. a prediction of prodigies or ill-omens by means of an interpretation of the
sound of thunder on certain specified days of the month. The actual prediction
of woe survives only at the end of the text in lines 8-9. It takes the form of a
famine and the invasion of the country by a conquering foreign army.
ORDER OF THE
DIVINE OFFICE
(4Q334)
Cave 4 has yielded five fragments of a liturgical work, listing the number of songs and words of praise to be sung during the night and during the day on consecutive days of the month. Only fragment 2 can be built up into a coherent text.
THE WORDS OF THE
HEAVENLY LIGHTS (4Q504-6)
Surviving in three fragments from Cave 4 (4Q504-6), ‘The Words of the Heavenly Lights’ are collective prayers for the days of the week which are full of biblical reminiscences. In the best preserved of them (4Q504), the Sabbath and the fourth day are expressly mentioned in the surviving text.
LITURGICAL
PRAYER
(1Q34 and 34bis)
The following fragments published by J. T. Milik belong to a collection of prayers for Jewish festivals. The title of this present section is lost, but reference to the renewal of the Covenant seems to indicate that we have here another part of the sect’s Pentecostal liturgy.
PRAYERS FOR
FESTIVALS
(4Q507-9)
Three badly worn manuscripts from cave 4 (4Q507-9) partly correspond to the foregoing fragments from Cave 1 (1Q34 and 34bis). They have preserved prayers for festivals, two of which are explicitly associated with the Day of Atonement and the Day of Firstfruits. The editor M. Baillet dates them to the beginning of the first century BC.
DAILY PRAYERS
(4Q503)
A manuscript from Cave 4 consisting of 225 papyrus fragments, edited by M. Baillet, lists evening and morning benedictions for each day of the month. The calendar followed appears to be lunar since evening precedes morning. The editor places the writing in the first quarter of the first century B.C.
PRAYER OF HYMN
CELEBRATION THE MORNING AND EVENING (4Q408)
One medium sized and fifteen or sixteen small fragments represent a collection of liturgical prayers of which only one can be partly translated. Palaeographically the document is placed in the Hasmonaean era (100 B.C.)
BLESSINGS
(1QSb=1Q28b)
These fragments from a collection of blessings were originally attached to
the scroll containing the Community Rule and the Messianic Rule. They have been
skillfully pieced together by J. T. Milik who dates them to around 100 B.C.
The Blessings were
to be recited by the Master or Guardian, and were, as it seems, intended for the
messianic age, and perhaps for the ceremony of the institution of the new
Community. It is, however, possible that they were actually used during the
course of some liturgy anticipating and symbolizing the coming of the messianic
era. All the members of the Covenant are blessed first, followed by someone who
seems to be the priestly head of the Community, the Messiah of Aaron. The next
blessing is addressed to the sons of Zadok, the Priests (and Levites?) and
finally the Prince of the Congregation, the Messiah of Israel, is blessed. The
rest of the document is lost.
BENEDICTIONS
(4Q280, 286-90)
Five fragmentary copies of a text containing liturgical blessings and curses have survived in Cave 4. Of these 4Q Berakhota: Blessings (4Q286) preserved on three photographic plates provides continuous passages. They parallel Community Rule II and War Rule XIII.
The style of 4Q Berakhotb: Curses of Belial (4Q286-7) also recalls the Songs of the Holocaust for the Sabbath (4Q400-407). Vermes agrees with Bilhah Nitzan that 4Qberakhot is probably an independent version of part of the ceremony of the renewal of the covenant included in 1QS 11, 3-17.
CONFESSION RITUAL
(4Q393)
Fragmentary remains of a communal confession of sins, spoken in the first person plural, recall the language of Psalm 51, Jeremiah and Deuteronomy, and resemble confession prayers in Ezra 9:5-15, Daniel 9:4-19, 1QS 1: 24-11. In the latter text, the parallel confession is part of the ceremony of the renewal of the Covenant.
PURIFICATION RITUAL
(4Q512)
Badly worn papyrus fragments from Cave 4 contain prayers: to be recited to obtain purification from various kinds of ritual uncleanness. M. Baillet suggests an early first century B.C. date for the script.
A LITURGICAL WORK (4Q392)
This is a religious text, possibly liturgical, but strongly reminiscent of the language of the Thanksgiving Hymns.
THE SEDUCTRESS
(4Q184)
A long and relatively well preserved Wisdom poem from Cave 4 depicts, by means of the metaphor of the harlot, the dangers and attraction of false doctrine. Palaeographically, the text is dated to the first century BC, but the work may be much older, possibly antedating the Qumran sect.
EXHORTATION TO
SEEK WISDOM
(4Q185)
Large fragments of a
Wisdom poem in which a teacher encourages his ‘people’, his ‘sons’, the
‘Simple’ to search for Wisdom have been preserved in Cave 4 (4Q185). The
script is believed to be late Hasmonaean, i.e. from the first half of the first
century B.C. As is often the case in Wisdom literature, events of the
patriarchal and Mosaic past are used for didactic purposes.
PARABLE OF THE
TREE (4Q302a)
This text comprises a badly damaged fragment of which only the opening lines provide any coherent sense. The topic seems to be the giant ‘good’ tree which produces thorns.
SAPIENTAL WORKS
Sapiental
Work i (4Q413)
Two fragments have preserved the first four lines of a column from a Wisdom composition.
A Sapiental Work
ii (4Q415-18, 423, 1Q26)
A substantial wisdom composition, probably dating from the second century BC, has survived in six fragmentary manuscripts, one from Cave 1 (1Q26) and five partly overlapping scrolls from Cave 4 (4Q415, 416, 417, 418a and b and 423). Apart from the last-mentioned manuscript, dated to the first half of the first century, all are said to be early Herodian (30-1 B.C.). The work is unquestionably sectarian and displays a terminology akin to the Community Rule, the Damascus Document, and the Thanksgiving Hymns. T. Elgvin has attempted to reconstruct the original work and he sums up its contents as follows: argument with a neighbor; relationship of the elect to God and man; God as provider for all his creatures; business ethics; a modest life; deposit to be returned in full; the hope of the just man; divine mysteries to be studied and the praise of God’s name; attitude to parents, wife, children; the elect and the sage’s escape from God’s anger; God as permanent judge of wickedness; God as creator of the heavenly beings and luminaries; God as future judge; mankind’s submission to God; the fate of the just and wicked; religious life; first born sons of God in praise of him; the use of insight; God’s eternal plant: the saints; God’s providence; the distribution of the portions of the elect; the farmer and the garden of Eden; Warning: God is to try man.
A Sapiental Work
iii: Ways of Righteousness (4Q420-21)
Two badly fragmented copies of a wisdom composition portray the behavior of the righteous man in universal terms. However, since the vocabulary of 4Q421 echoes the terminology of the Community Rule, the whole work may be classified as sectarian.
A Sapiental Work
iv (4Q424)
The main theme of these poetic compositions is to instruct the just man how to ensure the progress of wisdom by not entrusting its propagation to the unworthy.
BLESS, MY SOUL
(4Q434-7)
Cave 4 has yielded
five manuscripts of a poetic composition designated by the opening words of the
first section as Barki nafshi or “Bless, my soul”. A sixth manuscript
(4Q439) is said to be akin to it. 4Q434 fragment 1 is not unlike some of the
Thanksgiving Hymns, but includes no sectarian features.
SONGS OF THE
SAGE
(4Q510-11)
Scraps of two manuscripts from Cave 4 (4Q510-11) represent a mixture of sapiental psalms and poems of exorcism. Their editor (M. Baillet) assigns the script to the end of the first century BCE, or the turning of the era. The first fragment preserves an interesting list of names of demons.
BEATITUDES
(4Q525)
The title given to this piece of Wisdom poetry derives from the repeated use of “Blessed” modeled on Psalm 1:1 and recalling the Beatitudes of the New Testament (Mt.5:3-11). The main structural difference between Matthew and 4Q525 lies in that the former each time lists the reward of the virtue for which people are blessed, whereas the Cave 4 text provides ordinary, mostly antithetic, parallelisms instead.
JOSEPHUS' DESCRIPTION OF INITIATION OF NEW MEMBERS INTO THE QUMRAN COMMUNITY
"A candidate anxious to join their sect is not immediately admitted. For one year, during which he remains outside the fraternity, they prescribe for him their own rule of life, presenting him with a small hatchet, the loin cloth already mentioned, and white raiment. Having given proof of his temperance during this probationary period, he is brought into closer touch with the rule and is allowed to share the purer kind of holy water, but is not yet received into the meeting of the community. For after this exhibition of endurance, his character is tested for two years more, and only then, if found worthy, is he enrolled in the society. But, before he may touch the common food, he is made to swear tremendous oaths: first that he will practice piety towards the Deity, next that he will observe justice towards men: that he will wrong none whether of his own mind or under another's orders; that he will forever hate the unjust and fight the battle of the just; that he will forever keep faith with all men, especially with the powers that be, since no ruler attains his office save by the will of God; that, should he himself bear rule, he will never abuse his authority nor, either in dress or by other outward marks of superiority, outshine his subjects; to be forever a lover of truth and to expose liars; to keep his hands from stealing and his soul pure from unholy gain; to conceal nothing from the members of the sect and to report none of their secrets to others, even though tortured to death. He swears, moreover, to transmit their rules exactly as he himself received them; to abstain from robbery; and in like manner carefully to preserve the books of the sect and the names of the angels. Such are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes" (Josephus, War 2.119f)
LINKS TO OTHER DSS WEB PAGES BY DR. GARY GROMACKI
A Comparison of the Qumran Community and the Early Church
Doctrine of God Doctrine of the Bible Doctrine of Man and Sin
Doctrine of Salvation Doctrine of the Community Doctrine of the Messiah
Doctrine of Eschatology Archaeology of Qumran Bibliography on the DSS
Web Sites on the DSS DSS Table of Contents