A — The Rules

Part 11

This is the exact statement of the statutes in which they shall walk until the coming of the Messiahof Aaron and Israel who will pardon their iniquity Whoever deliberately lies in a matter of property.. and shall do penance for six days.. Whoever slanders his companion or bears rancour unjustly shall do penance for one year..

Damascus Document manuscripts from Cave Three Qumran caves have provided supplementary documentation to the text preserved in the Cairo Genizah. Of these the evidence furnished by Caves and is negligible, but the fragments discovered in Cave are of the highest importance. Furthermore 4Q265 provides a kind of hybrid connecting the Damascus Document and the Community Rule. Palaeographically 4Q266-73 are dated from the mid-first century BCE to the beginning of the first century CE. The 4Q material represents a prologue missing from CD and substantial legal sections which follow the broken ending of the Statutes of CD. These laws relate to the admission or dismissal of candidates; to criteria for disqualifying priests; to detailed rulings concerning the diagnosis and quarantining of persons suffering from skin disease; to laws pertaining to gleanings and to the agricultural priestly dues. A penal code partly overlapping with 1QS follows. The two main manuscripts 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 the hybrid S-D, 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. For the editio princeps, see J. M. Baumgarten, DJD, XVIII. For 4Q269, see H. Stegemann, DJD, XXXVI, 201-11.

THE OPENING OF THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT ACCORDING TO 4QD Three Cave manuscripts of the Damascus Document have preserved parts of a prologue unattested in the Cairo version. The prologue contains a title vaguely reminiscent of the opening of 4QSd. The context is eschatological and alludes to a revelation by God to those 'who search His commandments and walk in the perfection of way'. CD 11,1 follows on directly from the end of the prologue. 4Q266, fr. Ia-b For the Master to instruct the sons of Light to keep away from the ways of wickedness.. until the completion of the appointed time for the visitation of the spirit of injustice.. God will destroy 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 designs of God and His marvellous mighty deeds. I will recount to you all that is concealed from man all the days of his life.. Fr. 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 and

understand all future things before they befall them. Listen now, all you who know righteousness.. INITIATION RULES 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.. And these are the precepts in which all the converts of Israel shall walk.. the sons of Zadok, the Priests, behold they are the converts of Israel.. [the interpretation of the last Law. And these are the precepts for the Master in which he shall walk in regard to all Israel, for God shall not save any of those who are not established] in His ways to walk perfectly.. RULES RELATING TO THE DISQUALIFICATION OF PRIESTS 4Q 266, fr. ii In this section of priestly legislation, the Community specifies that only priests able to speak clearly and distinctly were allowed to read the Bible in public; that priests who had been war prisoners were disqualified from Temple service; and 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 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 Law 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 serve 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 holiness in their camps and in their towns in all.. DIAGNOSIS OF SKIN DISEASE The rules relating to the diagnosis of a skin disease affecting the scalp and the face are missing from the Cairo manuscripts, but can be partially reconstructed from 4Q272 and 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. i I.. a discoloration or a scab or a bright spot.. And the scab resulting from a blow by wood or stone or whatever blow, when the spirit enters and seizes 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 exceeds the living, he shall lock him up until the blood returns to the artery until the flesh grows. And the priest shall observe him and shall make a comparison on the seventh day, 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. I But if the discoloration or the scab is lower than the skin.. and the Priest sees it as the appearance of living flesh, it is a 'leprosy' 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 beard, 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. 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 during the seven days. If there has, he is unclean. But if nothing has been added from the live to the dead, and the artery is filled with blood and the spirit 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 flux issuing from his flesh, or one that causes a lewd thought to arise or.. the woman.. the man who approaches her will have the sin of menstrual uncleanness on him. And if she sees again and this is not during the uncleanness of seven days, she shall not eat sacred and shall not enter the Sanctuary until the sun has set on the eighth day. vacat And a woman who conceives and bears a male child shall be unclean for seven days like in her menstrual days. 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 menstruation. For sixty-six days she shall continue in her blood of purifying. And she shall not eat sacred and shall not enter the Sanctuary, for it is a capital crime.. Let her give the child to a wet-nurse who is in purity.. And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take a turtledove or a young pigeon and she shall substitute it for the lamb.. RULES CONCERNING GLEANINGS AND AGRICULTURAL PRIESTLY DUES.. Concerning gleanings and the gleanings from the vineyard. And all the gleanings up to a seah per bet seah.. And a field which produces no seed, is not subject to 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. should the amount 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. Concerning the two loaves of the terumah. All the families of Israel, those who eat the bread of the land, are to offer the terumah once a year. One shall be one isaron. 4Q 266, fr.. All sacred offerings from the planting of vineyards and all fruit trees food shall belong to them, as is decreed for them, in the holy land and in the land of sojourn. And afterwards they may sell of them to buy.. a man may plant, in the fourth year he may not eat for they sanctified it in that year.. 4Q 271, fr.. he shall take off from the threshing-floor one tenth of a homer, that is one ephah or bath, as is established. The ephah and the bath are both the same measure. And from the wheat one sixth of an ephah out of a homer and one tenth of a bath for the fruit of trees. Let no one separate himself by offering one lamb out of a hundred. Let no man eat from the threshing-floor and from the garden before the priests have stretched out their hand to bless 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 lead from which the nations have made idols, except new 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 a man pure of all uncleanness who has allowed the sun to set. No young man who has not yet reached the age to pass the muster shall sprinkle.. THE PENAL CODE AND THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT RITUAL CD ends with scrappy relics of a penal code. The Cave 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. The principal difference consists in the explicit mention of women 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 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.. 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, he shall not return again. And whoever has insulted his companion without a reason shall be excluded for one year and do penance for six months. Whoever has spoken a foolish word, shall do penance for twenty days and will be excluded for three months. And whoever interrupts the words of his companion and lets himself go, will do penance for ten days. And whoever lies down and falls asleep at the meeting 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 gratuitously as many as three times 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 thirty days. And whoever has walked naked before his companion, whether he has walked in the house or in the field, he has walked naked before the people; he shall be excluded for six months.. And whoever has drawn his hand from under his garment and he was so poorly dressed that his nakedness was seen, he shall be separated for thirty days and shall do penance for ten. And whoever has guffawed foolishly making his voice heard, shall be excluded for thirty and shall do penance for fifteen days. And whoever has drawn out his left hand to gesticulate with it, shall do penance for ten days. And whoever has gone slandering his companion, they shall exclude him from the purity for one year. 4Q 270, fr. I and shall do penance for six months. But whoever has slandered the Congregation shall be expelled and shall not return again. If he has murmured against his companion unjustly, he shall do penance for six months. And the man 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,