A — The Rules

Part 20

Discovered in 1956 in Cave II, the Temple Scroll did not emerge from semi-clandestinity until the Six Day War in June 1967. It is the longest Qumran manuscript, measuring over twenty-eight feet. There are also other fragments pertaining to the same document from Cave and from Cave. Originally it consisted of sixty- seven columns. The major part of the scroll deals with the Temple and cultic worship, especially sacrifices on Sabbaths and the many feasts of the year. Most of the legislation depends, directly or indirectly, on Exodus, Leviticus, and more particularly on Deuteronomy, but there are also occasional non-biblical regulations. The beginning of the manuscript is badly mutilated. Column I is missing. Columns III-XII are so fragmented that only a very hypothetical reconstruction, exclusively from biblical texts, is possible. I have decided not to translate them but indicate their probable contents in the summary that follows: 1. Covenant between God and Israel. 2. Building of the Temple, measurements of the Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, the chambers and colonnades. 3. Description of the mercy seat, the cherubim, the veil, the table, the golden lamp-stand, etc. 4. Outline of the sacrificesand the altar. 5. Daily, weekly and monthly sacrifices and those offered on festivals. 6. Buildings in the Temple courtyards: the stairhouse, the house of

the laver, the house for sacred vessels, the slaughterhouse, etc. 7. The three courtyards of the Temple, one for the priests, one for Jewish men over twenty years of age, and one for women and children. 8. Purity regulations concerning the Temple and the city of the Sanctuary. 9. Purity regulations concerning the cities of Israel. 10. Judges and officers. 11. Laws relating to idolatry and to sacrificial animals. 12. Vows and oaths. 13. Laws against apostasy. 14. Laws relating to priests and Levites and detailed statutes of the Jewish king. 15. Miscellaneous laws regarding priestly dues, idols, witnesses, the conduct of war, the rebellious son, crimes punishable by 'hanging', and incestuous relations. The sequence of subjects generally follows the Bible, but an obvious effort has been made to systematize, harmonize and reinterpret the laws. Sections complementary to Scripture include the Temple legislation, festivals, purity material as rules relating to the Temple and the city, and the statutes of the king. The aim of the redactor is to present the message of the scroll not as an interpretation of the Bible, but as an immediate divine revelation. For this purpose, not only does he formulate the supplementary legislation as directly spoken by God, but also frequently substitutes 'I' for 'the Lord = YHWH' of Scripture. Although the view has been advanced that the Temple Scroll is not a Qumran composition, the contrary thesis has a solid foundation. The relationship between this writing and the Damascus Document is particularly striking in the case of the prohibition of royal polygamy, of marriage between uncle and niece, and of marital relations within the city of the Sanctuary, to name the most significant instances. Note also that the death penalty of 'hanging' reserved for traitors appears both in TS LXIV, 6-13 and in the Nahum

Commentary. Since the Damascus Document and the Nahum Commentary are more likely to depend on the Temple Scroll than vice versa, the latter may safely be dated to the second century BCE. But it may also have an antecedent history reaching back to the pre-Qumran age. As noted, Cave has also yielded five fairly mutilated fragments, palaeographically dated to the mid-first century BCE, some of which have been used by Yadin. Fragment deals with the festival of Unleavened Bread; fragment corresponds to 11QTS XXXVIII, 4-15 while the other three fragments cannot be placed within the known version of the text. The composition is available in a magisterial edition by Yigael Yadin, who first published it in Hebrew in 1977 and subsequently, shortly before his death, in English under the title The Temple Scroll I-. My translation is often indebted to Yadin's editorial work. Further improvements are due to E. Qimron, The Temple Scroll: A Critical Edition with Extensive Reconstructions. For 11Q20-21, see F. García Martínez et al. DJD, XXIII, 357-414. For 4Q365a, see S. White, DJD, XIII, 319- 33. For 4Q524, see E. Puech, DJD, XXV, 79-114.

II Behold, I will make a covenant. For it is something dreadful that I will do to you. I myself will expel from before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the country which you are to enter so that they may not prove a snare for you. You must destroy their altars, smash their pillars and cut down their sacred trees and burn their idols with fire. You must not desire silver and gold so that you may not be ensnared by them; for that would be abominable to me. You must not bring any abominable idol into your house and come under the ban together with it. You shall detest and abominate it, for it is under the ban. You shall not worship another god, for YHWH, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the country so that, when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to [them and

invite you,] you may not eat of their sacrifices and take their daughters for your sons, and their daughters may not whore after their gods and cause your sons to whore after them.. This is what you shall offer on the altar: two yearling lambs without blemish every day as a perpetual holocaust. You shall offer the first in the morning; and you shall offer the other lamb in the evening; the corresponding grain-offering will be a tenth of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil; it shall be a perpetual holocaust of soothing odour, an offering by fire to YHWH; and the corresponding drink-offering shall be a quarter of a hin of wine. The priest who offers the holocaust shall receive the skin of the burnt-offering which he has offered. You shall offer the other lamb in the evening with the same grain-offering as in the morning and with the corresponding drink-offering as an offering by fire, a soothing odour to YHWH.. On the Sabbath days you shall offer two yearling rams without blemish and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with oil, for a grain-offering and the corresponding drink-offering. This is the holocaust of every Sabbath in addition to the perpetual holocaust and the corresponding drink-offering. On the first day of each month you shall offer a holocaust to YHWH: two young bulls, one ram, seven yearling rams without blemish and a grain-offering of fine flour, three tenths of an ephah mixed with half a hin of oil, and a drink-offering, half a hin for each young bull and a grain-offering of fine flour mixed with oil, two tenths of an ephah with a third of a hin, and wine for a drink-offering, one third of a hinfor each ram;. one tenth of fine flour for a grain-offering, mixed with a quarter of a hin, and wine, a quarter of a hin for each lamb.. a soothing odour to YHWH on the first day of each month. This is the burnt-offering for each month for the months of the year.. On the first day of the first month the months shall start; it shall be the first month of the year for you. You shall do no work. You shall offer a he-goat for a sin-offering. It shall be offered by itself to expiate for you. You shall offer a holocaust: a bullock, a ram, seven yearling ram lambs without blemish.. additional to the burnt-offering for the new moon, and a grain- offering of three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, half a hin for each bullock, and wine for a drink-offering, [half a hin, a soothing odour to

YHWH, and two] tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, one third of a hin. You shall offer wine for a drink-offering, one third of a hin for the ram, an offering by fire, of soothing odour to YHWH; and one tenth of fine flour, a grain-offering mixed with a quarter of a hinof oil. You shall offer wine for a drink-offering, a quarter of a hin for each ram.. lambs and for the he-goat.. each day.. seven yearling lambs and a he-goat.. according to this statute. For the ordination, one ram for each day, and baskets of bread for all the rams of the ordination, one basket for each ram. They shall divide all the rams and the baskets for the seven days of the ordination for each day; according to their divisions, they shall offer to YHWH the right thigh of the ram as a holocaust and the fat covering the entrails and the two kidneys and the fat on them and on the loins and the whole fat tail close to the backbone and the appendage of the liver and the corresponding grain-offering and drink-offering according to the statute. They shall take one unleavened cake from the basket and one cake of bread with oil and one wafer, and they shall put it all on the fat together with the offering of the right thigh. Those who sacrifice shall wave the rams and the baskets of bread as a wave-offering before YHWH. This is a holocaust, an offering by fire, of soothing odour before YHWH. They shall burn everything on the altar over the holocaust, to complete their ordination during the seven days of ordination. If the High Priest is to minister to YHWH, whoever has been ordained to put on the vestments in place of his father, shall offer a bull for all the people and another for the priests. He shall offer the one for the priests first. The elders of the priests shall lay their hands on its head and after them the High Priest and all the priests. They shall slaughter the bull before YHWH. The elders of the priests shall take from the blood of the bull and place it with their finger on the horns of the altar and they shall pour the blood around the four corners of the altar ledge.. and they shall take from its blood and place it on his right ear lobe and on the thumb of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot. They shall sprinkle on him and his vestments some of the blood which was on the altar.. he shall be holy all his days. He shall not go near any dead body. He shall not

render himself unclean even for his father or mother, for he is holy to YHWH, his God.. He shall offer on the altar and burn the fat of the first bull.. all the fat on the entrails and the appendage of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat on them and the fat on the loins, and the corresponding grain-offering and drink-offering according to their statute, he shall burn them on the altar. It shall be a burnt-offering, an offering by fire, of soothing odour before YHWH. The flesh of the bull, its skin and offal, they shall burn outside the sanctuary city on a wood fire in a place reserved for sin-offerings. There they shall burn it with its head and legs together with all its entrails. They shall burn all of it there except the fat. It is a sin-offering. He shall take the second bull, which is for the people, and by it he shall expiate for all the people of the assembly, by its blood and fat. As he did with the first bull, so he shall do with the bull of the assembly. He shall place with his finger some of its blood on the horns of the altar, and the remainder of its blood, he shall sprinkle on the four corners of the altar ledge, and its fat and the corresponding grain- offering and drink-offering, he shall burn on the altar. It is a sin-offering for the assembly.. They shall rejoice because expiation has been made for them.. This day shall be a holy gathering for them, an eternal rule for all their generations wherever they dwell. They shall rejoice and.. Let them prepare on the fourteenth day of the first month between dusk and dark the Passover of YHWH. They shall sacrifice before the evening offering and shall sacrifice.. men from twenty years of age and over shall prepare it. They shall eat it at night in the holy courts. They shall rise early and each shall go to his tent.. On the fifteenth day of this month a holy gathering. You shall do no work of labour on it. a seven-day feast of unleavened bread for YHWH. You shall offer on each of these seven days a holocaust to YHWH: two young bulls, a ram, and seven ram lambs without blemish and a he-goat for a sin-offering and the corresponding grain-offering and drink-offering according to the statute for the young bulls, rams, lambs and the he-goat. On the seventh day an assembly for YHWH. You shall do no work on it.. he- goat for a sin-offering.. the corresponding grain-offering and drink- offering according to the statute; one tenth of

fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil and a quarter of a hin of wine for a drink-offering.. he shall expiate for all the guilt of the people of the assembly.. This shall be an eternal rule for you for your generations wherever you dwell. Then they shall offer the one ram, once, on the day of the waving of the sheaf. You shall count seven complete Sabbaths from the day of your bringing the sheaf of the wave-offering. You shall count until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath. You shall count fifty days. You shall bring a new grain-offering to YHWH from your homes, a loaf of fine flour, freshly baked with leaven. They are firstfruits to YHWH, wheat bread, twelve cakes, two tenths of fine flour in each cake.. the tribes of Israel. They shall offer.. their grain-offering and drink-offering according to the statute. The priests shall wave.. wave-offering with the bread of the firstfruits. They shall belong to the priests and they shall eat them in the inner courtyard, as a new grain-offering, the bread of the firstfruits. Then.. new bread from freshly ripened ears. On this day there shall be a holy gathering, an eternal rule for their generations. They shall do no work. It is the feast of Weeks and the feast of Firstfruits, an eternal memorial. You shall count seven weeks from the day when you bring the new grain-offering to YHW H, the bread of firstfruits. Seven full Sabbaths shall elapse until you have counted fifty days to the morrow of the seventh Sabbath. You shall bring new wine for a drink-offering, four hins from all the tribes of Israel, one third of a hin for each tribe. They shall offer on this day with the wine twelve rams to YHWH; all the chiefs of the clans of Israel.. rams and the corresponding grain-offering according to the statute: two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, one third of a hin of oil for a ram; with this drink-offering.. seven yearling ram lambs and a he-goat.. assembly.. their grain- offering and drink-offering according to the statute concerning young bulls and the ram.. to YHWH. At the quarter of the day, they shall offer.. the rams and the drink-offering. They shall offer.. fourteen yearling ram lambs.. the burnt-offering. They shall prepare them.. and they shall burn their fat on the altar, the fat covering the entrails and the fat that is on them, and the appendage of the liver with the kidneys he shall remove and the fat on them, and that which