Holiness and law in the dead sea scrolls

Dead Sea Discoveries

Volumn 8, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 124-135

  Harrington, Hannah K ^a  

^a Patten College

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EID: 61949294808     PISSN: 09290761     EISSN: 15685179     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/156851701753726079     Document Type: Review

References (30)

1. P.R. Davies, "Halakhah at Qumran," A Tribute to Geza Vermes: Essays on Jewish and Christian Literature and History (eds P.R. Davies and R.T. White; JSOTSup 100; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), offers a good definition of halakhah: "a body of law governing Jewish behaviour which in practice or in theory derives from Scripture and acquires its authoritative status thereby." The halakhic documents found at Qumran are primarily: 4Q266-273, 5Q12, 6Q15 (fragments of the Damascus Document); 4Q159, 4Q513, 4Q514 (Ordinances); 4Q394-399 (4QHalakhic Letter or MMT); 4Q251 (4QHalakha), Purification Rule, 4Q274-278 (4QTohorot), 4Q284a (4QLeqet). Also halakhah is found in parts of 1QS (the Community Rule), IQM (the War Scroll), and 4Q174 (4QFlorilegium)
2. Hempel, The Laws of the Damascus Document: Sources, Traditions & Redaction (STDJ 29; Leiden: Brill, 1998) 15-23
3. L.H. Schiffman, Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Courts, Testimony and the Penal Code (BJS 33; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983) 213
4. J. Milgrom focuses on the consonance of the purity laws at Qumran, "The Scriptural Foundations and Deviations in the Laws of Purity of the Temple Scroll," Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. L.H. Schiffman; JSPSup 8; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990) 95
5. Cf. F. García Martínez, "Les Limites de la communauté: pureté et impureté à Qumrân et dans le Nouveau Testament," Text and Testimony: Essays in Honor of A.F.J. Klijn (ed. T. Baarda; Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1988) 111-22
6. F. García Martínez and J. Trebolle Barrera, The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls (trans. W.G.E. Watson; Leiden: Brill, 1995) 140
7. B.-Z. Wacholder, "Rules of Testimony in Qumran Jurisprudence: CD 9 and HQTorah 64," JJS 40 (1989) 174
8. J.J. Collins, "Apocalypticism and Literary Genre in the Dead Sea Scrolls," The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment (eds P.W. Flint and J.C. VanderKam; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 2.428
9. Cf. Wacholder, "Rules of Testimony in Qumran Jurisprudence," 174
10. c)," The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts with English Translations, vol. 1: The Rule of the Community and Related Documents (ed. J.H. Charlesworth; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994) 177
11. See E. Qimron, "Celibacy in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Two Kinds of Sectarians," The Madrid Qumran Congress: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Madrid, 18-21 March, 1991 (eds J. Trebolle Barrera and L. Vegas Montaner; STDJ 11; Leiden: Brill, 1992) 1.291-94
12. See J.E. Zias, "The Cemeteries of Qumran and Celibacy: Confusion Laid to Rest?" DSD 7 (2000) 220-53, who has produced scientific data that the female bones found at Qumran are only about a few centuries old and do not date back to the time of the sect. This points to a celibate status for the Qumran group
13. J.A. Naudé, "Holiness in the Dead Sea Scrolls," The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years, 2.184
14. D. Dimant, "4QFlorilegium and the Idea of the Community as Temple," Hellenica et Judaica: hommage à Valentin Nikiprowetzky (eds A. Caquot et al.; Leuven: Peeters, 1986) 188
15. Cf. Schiffman, Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 136-41, 144
16. a 51:5-10 and CD 6:17-18; 12:20 connect holiness and purity synonymously. See also L.H. Schiffman, who claims that purity and holiness are equivalent in the Temple Scroll, both referring to the abstinence from impurity, "The Theology of the Temple Scroll," JQR 85 (1994) 121. Some Qumran texts appear to use purity and holiness interchangeably, and indeed there is some overlap since holiness requires purity, but the two terms are not identical
17. In my book, Holiness: The Rabbis and the Graeco-Roman World (London: Routledge, 2001)
18. argue that the phrase was originally following the Aramaic, following E.E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1979) 77-78, who collects many examples
19. Naudé, "Holiness in the Dead Sea Scrolls," 192, gives several references where without the definite article still refers to God and is used to avoid using God's name directly
20. Naudé, "Holiness in the Dead Sea Scrolls," 176
21. Milgrom, Leviticus 17-27
22. The Acts of Thomas 8 refers to abandonment of "filthy intercourse" in order to become "holy temples" (J.M. Baumgarten, "The Qumran-Essene Restraints on Marriage," Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 23 n. 23)
23. M. Broshi, "Anti-Qumranic Polemics in the Talmud," Madrid Qumran Congress, 2.589-600
24. M. Baillet, Qumrân grotte 4.III (4Q482-4Q520) (DJD 7; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982) 237
25. Naudé, "Holiness in the Dead Sea Scrolls," 189
26. cites also M.J. Davidson, Angels at Qumran: A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran (JSPSup 11; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992) 132-342
27. García Martínez, " Les Limites de la communauté," 118: The last stage of thought in the history of this literature is that the community must be so pure because of the angels within it, "exigence de pureté angelique."
28. Cf. Naudé, "Holiness in the Dead Sea Scrolls," 173
29. J.M. Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law (SJLA 24; Leiden: Brill, 1977) 29-31. For the Rabbis, new inspiration had to be linked to the Mosaic revelation at Sinai
30. Cited in J.M. Baumgarten, "Purification Liturgies," The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years, 2.207