B — Hymns and Poems

Hymnic Fragment (4Q433a)

1The verso side of this papyrus, palaeographically dated to the first half of the first century BCE, contains the beginning of the Community Rule (4Q255). The recto carries a poem similar to the Qumran Hymns or Hodayot and elaborates the familiar image of the Community as a plant in God's garden. For the editio princeps, see E. Schuller, DJD, XXIX, 237-45. Fr. 2 ... for the everlasting sea[sons]. For the Master. A sim[il]itude about the glory of ... A plant of delight, a plant in His garden and in his vineyard. Its twigs will bear fruit and its branches will increase... and its branches (reaching) above the elevated support of heaven; and its splendour offers itself for everlasting generations, producing fru[it] for all who are to taste it. There will be no wild grapes among its fruits. It will have foliage, leaves and blossoms. None of its roots will be pulled up from its bed of balsam for...