A — The Rules

Part 4

I will impart/conceal knowledge with discretion

and will prudently hedge it within a firm bound to preserve faith and strong judgement in accordance with the justice of God. I will distribute the Precept by the measuring-cord of the times, and.. righteousness and loving-kindness towards the oppressed, encouragement to the troubled heart and discernment to the erring spirit, teaching understanding to them that murmur that they may answer meekly before the haughty of spirit and humbly before men of injustice who point the finger and speak of iniquity and who are zealous for wealth.

As for me, my justification is with God. In His hand are the perfection of my way and the uprightness of my heart. He will wipe out my transgression through His righteousness.

For my light has sprung from the source of His knowledge; my eyes have beheld His marvellous deeds, and the light of my heart, the mystery to come. He that is everlasting is the support of my right hand; the way of my steps is over stout rock which nothing shall shake; for the rock of my steps is the truth of God and His might is the support of my right hand.

From the source of His righteousness is my justification,

and from His marvellous mysteries is the light in my heart. My eyes have gazed on that which is eternal, on wisdom concealed from men, on knowledge and wise design from the sons of men; on a fountain of righteousness and on a storehouse of power, on a spring of glory from the assembly of flesh. God has given them to His chosen ones as an everlasting possession, and has caused them to inherit the lot of the Holy Ones. He has joined their assembly to the Sons of Heaven to be a Council of the Community, a foundation of the Building of Holiness, and eternal Plantation throughout all ages to come.

As for me, I belong to wicked mankind, to the company of unjust flesh. My iniquities, rebellions, and sins, together with the perversity of my heart, belong to the company of worms and to those who walk in darkness. For mankind has no way, and man is unable to establish his steps since justification is with God and perfection of way is out of His hand. All things come to pass by His knowledge; He establishes all things by His design and without Him nothing is done.

As for me, if I stumble, the mercies of God shall be my eternal salvation. If I stagger because of the sin of flesh, my justification shall be by the righteousness of God which endures for ever. When my distress is unleashed He will deliver my soul from the Pit and will direct my steps to the way. He will draw me near by His grace, and by His mercy will He bring my justification. He will judge me in the righteousness of His truth and in the greatness of His goodness He will pardon all my sins. Through His righteousness he will cleanse me of the uncleanness of man and of the sins of the children of men, that I may confess to God His righteousness, and His majesty to the Most High.

Blessed art Thou, my God, who openest the heart of Thy servant to knowledge! Establish all his deeds in righteousness, and as it pleases Thee to do for the elect of mankind, grant that the son of Thy handmaid may stand before Thee for ever.

For without Thee no way is perfect, and without Thy will nothing is done. It is Thou who hast taught all knowledge and all things come to pass by Thy will. There is none beside Thee to dispute Thy counsel or to understand all Thy holy design, or to contemplate the depth of Thy mysteries and the power of Thy might.

Who can endure Thy glory, and what is the son of man in the midst of Thy wonderful deeds? What shall one born of woman be accounted before Thee? Kneaded from the dust, his abode is the nourishment of worms. He is but a shape, but moulded clay, and inclines towards dust. What shall hand-moulded clay reply? What counsel shall it understand?

Community Rule manuscripts from Cave 4QSd=4Q258 This'is the best preserved of the ten 4QS manuscripts. Seven columns of the text have survived, five of them containing full-length lines. Column 1, with a wide margin on the right, is almost certainly the beginning of the Scroll. It corresponds to 1QS v, 1. The last identifiable passage represents 1QS XI, 7. The word 'God' is written twice with palaeo-Hebrew letters. Columns I and of Sd provide a shorter and smoother version of the Rule than 1QS. The more fragmentary 4QSb supports the present version on the essential points. The most significant peculiarities of 4QSd are the almost complete absence of the 'full' spelling characteristic of the Qumran sectarian manuscripts, the different opening line and a repeated failure to mention 'the Priests, the Sons of Zadok'. For both its occurrences in 1QS, 4QSd read 'the Congregation', an alternative reading likely to possess important historical implications. For the editio princeps, see P. S. Alexander and G. Vermes, DJD, XXVI, 83-128. See also G. Vermes, 'The Leadership of the Qumran Community: Sons of Zadok - Priests - Congregation', in the Martin Hengel Festschrift Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion, ed. P. Schäfer, 375-84.

I Teaching for the Master concerning the men of the Law who have freely pledged themselves to convert from all evil and hold fast to all that He has commanded. And they shall separate from the congregation of the men of injustice and shall unite with respect to doctrine and property, and they shall be under the authority of the

Congregation concerning all matters of doctrine and property. They shall practise humility and righteousness and justice and loving- kindness and modesty in all their ways. And no man shall walk in the stubbornness of his heart so as to stray. He is rather to lay a foundation of truth for Israel for the Community, for all those who have freely pledged themselves to Holiness in Aaron and to a House of Truth in Israel and for those who join them for a Community. Whoever enters the Council of the Community shall undertake by binding to return to the Law of Moses with all heart and soul, to all that has been revealed from the Law. And whoever enters the Council of the men of the Community shall separate from all the men of injustice.. He shall not touch the purity of the men of holiness and shall not eat with in community. And no one of the men of the Community shall follow their decision in any doctrine and judgement. And.. of work. No one from the men of holiness shall eat.. And they shall not lean upon works of vanity, for they are all vanity who do not know His Covenant and all who despise His word He will blot them out from the world. All their deeds are defilement before Him and all their property unclean.. Gentiles and they pronounce oaths and execrations and vows. But when a man enters the Covenant according to all these precepts, that he may be joined to the holy Congregation, they shall examine their spirit in community, among themselves concerning their understanding and their practice of the Law under the authority of the sons of Aaron who have freely pledged themselves to restore His Covenant and heed to all the precepts commanded by Him to be practised by the multitude of Israel who have freely pledged themselves to return in common. They shall be inscribed in the order, one after another, each according to his understanding and his deeds in the Law, that all may obey one another, the man of lesser rank the greater. And they shall examine their spirit and their deeds in the Law yearly so that each man may be advanced in accordance with his understanding or moved down in accordance with his aberrations. They shall rebuke one another loving-kindness. Let no man address his companion with anger or ill-temper or wicked envy. Also let no man accuse his companion before the Congregation without

having rebuked him before witnesses. These are the ways in which all of them shall walk, each man with his companion, wherever they dwell. The man of lesser rank shall obey the greater in matters of work and property. And they shall eat in common and bless in common and deliberate in common. And wherever there are ten men of the Council of the Community, there shall not lack a priest from among them. And they shall sit, each man according to his rank, before him and shall be asked their counsel in all things in that order. And when the table has been prepared for eating or the new wine for drinking, the priest shall be first to stretch out his hand to bless the firstfruit of the bread and of the wine. And where the ten are, there shall never lack a man among them who shall study the Law day and night. And the Congregation shall watch for one third of every night of the year, to read the Book... and whoever draws his hand from beneath his garment... and to pay to the wicked their reward. It shall be a tried wall, that precious corner-stone whose foundations shall not rock nor sway from their place; a most holy dwelling-place for Aaron, with the knowledge of them all of a covenant of justice and of the offering of fragrance; a house of perfection and truth for Israel to establish a covenant according to the everlasting precepts. They shall be an acceptance to atone for the land and to determine the judgement of wickedness with no injustice. When these have been confirmed in the foundation of the Community for two years, in perfection of way, they shall be separated as holy within the council of the men of the Community. And anything hidden from Israel but discovered by the man who interprets, he shall not conceal it from them for fear of the spirit of apostasy. And when these become the Community/in Israel, they shall separate from the midst of the habitation of the men of injustice to go into the wilderness to prepare there the way of HIM. This is the study of the Law which He has commanded by the hand of Moses, to practise all that has been revealed from age to age, and as the prophets have revealed by His holy spirit. And no man from the men of the covenant of the [Community who turns aside from any commandment deliberately shall touch the purity of the men of holiness, nor shall he

know any of their counsel until his deeds are purified from all injustice so that he walks in perfection of way. And they shall admit him to the council by the decision of the Congregation and afterwards he shall be inscribed in his rank. And this rule to everyone who attaches himself] to the Community. And these are the rules which the men of holiness shall follow, one regarding another. Everyone who enters the council of the Community... they shall exclude him from purity and from council and from judgement for two years and he shall return to study and to council if he has not committed again a sin by inadvertence for two full years. For one sin of inadvertence he shall do penance for two years, and for a deliberately committed sin he shall return no more. But he shall be tried for two years concerning the perfection of his way and for his counsel according to the decision of the Congregation and he shall be inscribed in his rank in the Community of holiness. When these become part of the Community in Israel according to these rules, they shall establish the spirit of holiness as eternal truth. They shall atone for guilty rebellion and the sin of unfaithfulness and shall gain acceptance for the land without the flesh of holocausts and the fat of sacrifices and offerings. And the correct free-will gift of the lips shall be like a fragrance of righteousness and the perfection of the way like the free-will offering of agreeable tribute. And at that time they shall separate a house of Aaron for holiness for all of God and a house of Community for Israel who walk in perfection. Only the sons of Aaron shall command in matters of justice and property. And the property of the men of holiness who walk in perfection, let their property not be merged with the property of the men of falsehood who have not confirmed their way to separate from all evil things so as to walk in the way of perfection. Let them not depart from any counsel of the Law and they shall be judged by the primitive precepts in which the men of the Community began to be instructed. He shall perform the judgement of every man according to his spirit and he shall admit him according to the cleanness of his hands and shall advance him according to his understanding, and so shall be his love and his hatred. Furthermore he shall not rebuke a man and shall not dispute with the men of the pit. He shall conceal his counsel among