The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English

by Geza Vermes

  4Q266, fr. Ia-b

  [For the Master to instruct the s]ons of Light to keep away from the way[s of wickedness] ... until the completion of the appointed time for the visitation of [the spirit of injustice] ... God [will destro]y all her deeds, bringing destruction on ... the removers of boundaries and He will inflict destruction [on the assembly] of wickedness. [And now listen] to me and I will let you know the awesome des[igns of God] and His marvellous [mighty deeds]. I will recount to you [all that is concealed] from man [all the d]ays of his life...

  Fr. 2 (4Q267, fr. 1; 268, fr. 1)

  I flesh and creature... until it comes to them for they shall not be either early or late from their appointed times... He decreed an age of wrath for the people who did not know Him, and He established appointed times of goodwill for those who search His commandments and walk in the perfection of way. And He revealed hidden things to their eyes, and opened their ears so that they might hear deep (secrets) and understand all future things before they befall them. Listen now, all you who know righteousness... (=CD 1, 1).

  (2) INITIATION RULES

  (4Q266, fr. 5)

  This fragment contains echoes of the Community Rule’s regulations regarding admission and dismissal of candidates and CD’s identification of the sons of Zadok as the ‘converts of Israel’.

  I ... ... [that they may bring near] each according to [his] spirit [and deeds] ... they shall depart by the decision of the Guardian (cf. 1QS VI, 16-17) ... [And these are the precepts] in which all the converts of Israel [shall wa]lk ... the sons of Zadok, the Priests (cf. CD IV, 2-3), behold the[y are the converts of Israel... [the interpretation of the] last Law. And these are the precepts for the Mas[ter] in which [he shall walk (1QS IX, 12)] in regard to all Israel, for [God] shall not save any of those who are not established] in His ways to walk perfec[tly] ...

  (3) RULES RELATING TO THE DISQUALIFICATION OF PRIESTS

  4Q 266, fr. 5 ii (4Q267, fr. 5 ii; 273, frs. 2, 4 i)

  In this section of priestly legislation, the Community specifies (I) that only priests able to speak clearly and distinctly were allowed to read the Bible in public; (2) that priests who had been war prisoners were disqualified from Temple service; and (3) that priests who migrated to Gentile countries were deprived of their leading position and forbidden to partake in holy things.

  II Whoever speaks too fast (or: too quietly, lit. swift or light with his tongue) or with a staccato voice and does not split his words to make [his voice] heard, no one from among these shall read the Book of [the] La[w] that he may not misguide someone in a capital matter.... [Any man] from among the sons of Aaron who has been taken prisoner by the nations... to defile him with their uncleanness. He shall not come close to the [holy] worship... Let him not eat the most holy [things] ... Any son of Aaron who retreats to ser[ve the nations] ... to teach his people the constitution of the people and also to betray... [Any son] of Aaron whose name has been rejected from the Truth... [who has walked] in the stubbornness of his heart, eating from the holy ... from Israel, the Council of the sons of Aaron... who eats, he shall become guilty of the blood... in genealogy. And this is the rule for the dwelling [of the towns of Israel ... for the men] of holin[ess in] their [camps and] in their towns in a[ll] ...

  (4) DIAGNOSIS OF SKIN DISEASE

  (4Q 266,269,272,273)

  The rules relating to the diagnosis of a skin disease affecting the scalp and the face (Lev. xiii, 29-37) are missing from the Cairo manuscripts, but can be partially reconstructed from 4Q272 and 266 and also from 4Q269 and 273. The introductory formula prefixed to Lev. xiii, 33, viz., ‘And as for that which is said’, usually indicative of a repeat citation, suggests that a longer Leviticus quotation preceded it. The skin disease section is followed by laws relating to various sexual discharges causing uncleanness and impurity linked with childbirth.

  For the editio princeps, see J. M. Baumgarten, DJD, XVIII, 50-51, 186-7.

  4Q 266, fr. 6 i (4Q272 1 273 ii, 269 7)

  I ... a discoloration or a scab or a bright spot ... And the scab resulting from a blow by wood [or st]one or whatever blow, when the spi[rit] enters [and sei]zes the artery, and the blood recedes up and down, and the artery... after the blood ...

  [And the priest shall observe the skin, the living and] the dead. If the dead (skin) [exceeds] the living (skin), he shall lock him up [until the blood re]turns to the artery until the flesh grows. And the priest shall observe him and shall make a comparison [on] the seventh [d]ay, [and if the spirlit of life is moving up and down, and the flesh grows, [the plague is healed, clean is] the scab. The priest shall not observe the skin on the flesh.

  4Q266, fr. 6

  I But if the discoloration or the scab is lower [than the skin... and the Pr]iest sees it as the appearance of living flesh, it is [a ‘leprosy’ (skin disease)] which has seized the living skin. And a similar rule concerning ... the Priest shall see on the seventh day. If some living flesh has become dead, the leprosy is malignant. And the law for the scab of the head or the bea[rd, when the Priest shall see] that the spirit has entered the head and the beard seizing the artery, and [the plague] spreads from under the hair and turns its appearance to fine yellow; for it is like a plant which has a worm under it and bites its root and makes its flower wither. And as for that which is said, And the Priest shall order that they shave his head, but shall not shave the scab (Lev. xiii, 33). This is in order that the Priest may count the dead and live hair. And he will see whether anything has been added from the live to the dead (hair) during the seven days. If there has, he is unclean. But if nothing has been added from the live (hair) to the dead, and the artery is filled with bl[ood] and the sp[i]rit of life goes up and down in it, this plague [is cured]. And this is the rule of the law of ‘leprosy’ for the sons of Aaron to set apart...

  And the law concerning a man with a flux. Any man with a [fl]ux issuing from [his] flesh, [o]r one that causes a [lew]d thought to arise or ... II the woma[n] ... [the man who ap]proaches [her] will have [the s]in of menstrual uncleanness on him. And if she sees (blood) a[gain] and this is not [during the uncleanness] of seven days, she shall not eat sacred (food) and shall not en[ter] the Sanctuary until the sun has set on the eighth day. vacat

  And a woman who [conceiv]es and bears a male child [shall be unclean] for seven [days like] in her menstrual d[ays. On the eighth day the flesh of his] foreskin [shall be circumcised. She shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. But if she bears a female child, she shall be unclean for a fortnight as in] her [menstr]uation. For [sixty-six days she shall continue in her blood of purifying (Lev. xii, 2-5). And she] shall not eat [sacred (food) and shall not enter the Sanctuary, for] it is a capital crime... [Let her give the chi]ld to a wet-nurse who is in [(the state of) pur]ity.... [And] if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take a turtledove or a young pigeon (Lev. xii, 8) and she shall substitute it for the [lamb]....

  (5) RULES CONCERNING GLEANINGS AND AGRICULTURAL PRIESTLY DUES

  (4Q 266,269,270,271)

  III ... [Concer]ning [gleanings (of grain) and the gleanings (of grapes) from the vine]yard. (A cluster is up to ten berries.)

  And all the gleanings (of grain) up to a seah (measure of capacity=c. 12 litres) per bet seah (area requiring one seah of seed for sowing) ... [And a field] which produces no seed, is not subject to (a levy of) terumah-offering or of fallen grapes or of clusters up to ten berries. And for the harvest of olives and the fruit of its produce, if it is complete, isolated olives are one in thirty.

  But if the field was ravaged or consumed by burning,

  4Q 270, fr. 3

  should the amount (remaining) be a seah per bet seah, it is to be tithed. If one person gleans one seah from it one day, the terumah will be one isaron (=30 per cent of a seah). [Concerning the two] loaves of the terumah. All the families (lit. houses) of Israel, those who eat the bread of the land, are to offer the terumah once a year (cf. Num. xv, 19-20; Lev. xxiii, 17). One (loaf) shall be one isaron.
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  4Q 266, fr. 6

  IV ... All sacred offerings from the planting of vineyards and all fruit trees (producing) food shall belong to them (the priests), as is decreed for them, in the holy [lan]d and in the land of (their) sojourn. And afterwards they may sell of them to bu[y] ... a man may plant, in the fourth year he may n[ot ea]t (of it) for they sanctified it in [that] y[ear] ...

  4Q 271, fr. 2 (4Q269, fr. 8 i-ii; 270, fr. 3 iii)

  ... he shall take off from (the grain of) the threshing-floor one tenth of a ho[mer (measure of volume, c. 220 litres), that is one eph]ah [or bath (22 litres), as is established]. The ephah and the bath are both the same measure. And from [the wheat o]ne sixth of [an ephah out of a homer and one tenth of a bath] for the fruit of trees. Let no one separate himself (from the norm of I out of 200, cf. Ezek. xlv, 15) by offering one lamb out of a hundred. Let [no] man eat [from the threshing-floor] and from the garden before [the prie]sts have stretched out their hand [to ble]ss first.... a house belonging to a man, he may sell and with... and he shall be innocent.... Let no man bring... to his pure food. Neither shall he bring close to his pure food any gold or silver or [copper], or tin or le[ad] from which the nations have made idols, except new (metal) coming straight from the furnace. Let no man bring any leather or garment or any vessel [which is used for] work and which has been defiled by the corpse of a man unless they were sprinkled according to the law [of purity with the water] for uncleanness in the age of wickedness (by) a man pure of all uncleanness who has allowed the sun to set (i.e. one who after bathing himself did not proceed until after sunset). No young man who has not yet reached the age to pass the mu[ster shall sprinkle] ...

  (6) THE PENAL CODE AND THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT RITUAL

  (4Q 266,270)

  CD XIV ends with scrappy relics of a penal code. The Cave 4 manuscripu Da and De include a list of breaches of the rule punished by exclusion and penance of varying lengths. They closely resemble the code contained in the Community Rule (1QS VII). The principal difference consists in the explicit mention of women (fornication with one’s wife and murmuring against the Mothers) which once again renders the silence of Serekh concerning any matter pertaining to the female sex particularly eloquent. The penal code is followed by a Covenant ritual, which ends the Cave 4 version of the Damascus Document and contains the words spoken by the priestly head of the sect, following the expulsion of the unfaithful members of the congregation. The passage includes the reference to the ‘third month’ as the date of this festive assembly and presents the message of this writing as ‘the last interpretation of the Law’.

  For the editio princeps, see J. M. Baumgarten, DVD, XVIII, 72-8, 162-70.

  4Q266, fr. 10 (4Q270, fr. 7 i; 269, fr. 11 i-ii)

  ... II [He shall be excluded for] two [hundred] days and do penance for one hundred days. But if it was a capital matter and he bears (a grudge), [he] shall not return [again. And whoev]er has in[sulted] his companion without a reason [shall be exc]luded for one year and do pe[nan]ce for s[ix months] (cf. 1QS VII, 4). Whoever has spoken a foolish word, shall do penance for t[wen]ty [days and will be excluded] for three month[s (cf. 1QS VII, 9). And whoever in]terrupts the w[ords of his companion and lets himself go, will do penance for ten] days (1QS VII, 9-10). [And whoever lies do]wn [and] falls asleep at [the mee]t[ing of the Congregation ... shall be excluded] for thirty days [and] do penance for ten days. [And likewise, whoever has] left [without the consent of the Congregation and gratu]itously as many as three ti[mes in] one [session], he [shall do penance for ten] days. But if he has left the session [when they were standing, he shall do penance for thir]ty day[s]. And whoever has walked [naked] before [his] companion, whether he has walked in the house or in the field, he has walked n[aked before the peo]ple; he shall be excluded for six [months] ... (1QS VII, 10-12). And whoever has [d]rawn his hand from under [his] gar[ment and he was so poorly dressed that his nakedness was seen, he shall be separated for thir]ty [day]s and shall do penance for ten (1QS VII, 13-14). And whoever has gu[ffawed foolishly making his voi]c[e heard, shall be excluded for th]irty (days) and shall do penance for fif[teen days. And whoever has drawn out] his le[ft h]and [to gesticu]late with it, shall do penance [for ten days (1QS VII, 14-15). And who]ever has gone [slandering his com]panion, they shall exclude him from the purity for one year.

  4Q 270, fr. 7

  I [and shall do penance for six months. But whoever has slandered the Congregation shall be expelled] and shall not return ag[ain] (1QS VII, 15-16). [If he has murmured against his companion unjustly, he shall do penance for six months (1QS VII, 17-18). And] the m[a]n whose spirit has so trembled [before the authority of the Community that he has betrayed the truth and walked in the stubbornness of his heart, he shall be excluded for two years] and do penance for sixty [days] (1QS VII, 18-19). [When his two years are completed, the Congregation shall consider [his ca]se, [and if he is admitted,] he shall be ins[cribed in his rank and may then question about the law (1QS VII, 20—21). And whoever] has despised the law of the Congregation shall leave and [shall not return again. And whoever has taken] his food (from another person) outside the rules, he shall return it to the man fr[om whom] he has taken it. vacat And whoever has approached his wife, not according to the rules, (thus) fornicating, he shall leave and will not return again. [If he has murmured] against the Fathers, he shall leave and shall not return [again (cf. 1QS VII, 17). But if he has murmured] against the Mothers, he shall do penance for ten days. For the Mothers have no rwqmh(distinction ?) within [the Congregation. vacat

  And these are the r]ules in [which they shall walk, all those who have been corrected. Whoev]er comes [to report some]one to the Priest [over]seeing

  4Q 266, fr. II4Q270, fr. 7 i-ii)

  II the Congregation, he shall willingly accept His judgement, as He has ordered by the hand of Moses regarding the soul that sins by inadvertence that he shall bring his sin-offering and his guilt-offering. And concerning Israel it is written, I will go to the ends [of] heaven and will not smell the smell of your sweet odour (Lev. xxvi, 31). And in another passage it is written, To return to God with crying and fasting (Joel ii, 13). And in another passage it is written, Rend your heart and not your garment (ibid.) and it is written to return to God with fasting and weeping (Joel ii, 12). And whoever rejects these rules which follow all the precepts found in the Law of Moses, shall not be counted with all the sons of His truth, for his soul has detested the righteous corrections (cf. 1QS III, I). As a rebel, he shall be dismissed from the Congregation. The Priest [over]seeing the Congregation shall speak about him. Answering, [he shall] say: ‘Blessed art Thou, “Lord” of the universe. Everything is in Thine hands and Thou art the maker of everything. Thou hast founded the [pe]oples according to their families and the languages of their nations. Thou hast made them err in confusion without a way. And Thou hast chosen our Fathers and hast given to their seed the precepts of Thy truth and Thine holy judgements by which a man, if he practises them, shall live. And Thou hast established boundaries for us and cursed those who transgress them.

  And we are the people of Thy redemption and the flock of Thy pasture. Thou hast cursed those who transgress it (the boundary?) but we maintain (it).’ And the dismissed man shall leave, and whoever eats from what is his, and greets (literally, inquires about the welfare – shalom– of) the man who has been dismissed, and agrees with him, his case shall be recorded by the Guardian according to the decree, and his judgement shall be complete. And all [the inhabitants] of the camps shall assemble in the third month and shall curse him who turns aside, to the right [or to the left from the] Law. And this (the foregoing) is the interpretation of the laws which they shall observe in all the age [of visitation which will be visited on them during al]l the age of wrath and in their marches for all those who dwell in their camps and all their towns. Behold all this is according to the last interpretation of the Law.

  (7) A HYBRID COMMUNITY RULE – DAMASCUS DOCUMENT TEXT

  (4Q265)

  Tw
elve fragments of a manuscript, dating probably to the end of the first century BCE, have preserved remains of a writing dependent both on the Community Rule and on the Damascus Document but also including material which is in neither of these sources. Fr. I deals with the initiation into the Community and the penal code in terms recalling 1QS VI-VII, and fr. 7, lines 7-10 contains a description of the Council of the Community which is an abridged version of 1QS VIII, 1—9. It is worth noting that the ‘twelve men and three priests’ of 1QS VIII, I is replaced here by‘fift[een men]’. Elements of the Sabbath laws from CD XI figure on columns I-II of fr. 7, while on one point the borrowing is probably from the Temple Scroll LII, 17-18. As for material alien to 1QS and CD, fr. 2 cites Isaiah liv, 1-2 in full and the last four lines of fr. 7 ii reproduce Lev. xii, 2, 4a, 5, 4b, but omitting xii, 3. This quotation is part of an account of the ages of the world arranged according to weeks, beginning with the garden of Eden.

  For the editio princeps, see J. M. Baumgarten, DJD, XXXV, 57-58.

  Fr. 1

  ... as it is written [in the Book of] ... [as] it is written in the B[ook] of Isaiah the prophet: [Sing, o barren one, who did not bear; break forth in singing and] cry aloud you who have not been in travail! For the sons [of the desolate one] will be more [than the children of her who is married, says the Lord]. Enlar[ge] the place of [your] ten[t] ... (Isa. liv, 1-2) Its interpretation concerns...

  Fr. 3

  ... Why does a ma[n] betray his brother ... [Let no] young man or woman eat [the sacrifice] of Passover...