Abominated temple and a holy community: The formation of the notions of purity and impurity in Qumran

Dead Sea Discoveries

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 243-278

  Regev, Eyal ^a  

^a BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61949335109     PISSN: 09290761     EISSN: 15685179     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/156851703322235403     Document Type: Review

References (62)

1. E.M. Zuesse, "Taboo and the Divine Order," JAAR 42 (1979) 487
2. Y. Sussmann, "The History of Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Preliminary Observations on Miqscombining dot belowat Ma'aśe Ha-Torah (4QMMT)" (Hebrew), Tarbiz 59 (1989/90) 11-76, and the bibliography cited there
3. E. Regev, "Pure Individualism: The Idea of Non-Priestly Purity in Ancient Judaism," JSJ 31 (2000) 176-202
4. See J. Klawans, "Notions of Gentile Impurity in Ancient Judaism," AJSR 20 (1995) 285-312
5. idem, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) esp. 21-42
6. For this second type of desecration, see J. Milgrom, Cult and Conscience: The Asham and the Priestly Doctrine of Repentance (SJLA 18; Leiden: Brill, 1976) 16-19, 34-40
7. idem, Leviticus 1-16 (AB 3; New York: Doubleday, 1991) 43-51, 307-18, 598-604, 976-1009. The desecration that is caused by improper rite was of course also recognized by the rabbis. See e.g., m. Zeb. 2:3 on the danger of. M. Zevahcombining dot belowim 1-4, however, distinguishes between disqualified sacrificial acts that lead to, i.e., an offensive thing, and those which while not atoning, do not cause a penalty. It should be clarified that both Scripture and Rabbinic texts differentiate between impurity and desecration. I refer here to both as one uniform concept only because of their common implication from a religious point of view, namely, the desolation of the sacrificial cult in the Temple, as will be demonstrated from several Qumranic texts
8. MMT B 13-16; E. Qimron and J. Strugnell, Qumran Cave 4.V: Miqscombining dot belowat Ma'áse Ha-Torah (DJD 10; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994) 46, 152-54
9. H. Birenboym, "The Law of Well-Being Sacrifice in the Miqscombining dot belowat Ma'aśeh Ha-Torah Scroll" (Hebrew), Tarbiz 67 (1998) 241-44. Cf. Lev. 7:15; 22:30; m. Men. 1:3
10. C. Hayes, "Intermarriage and Impurity in Ancient Jewish Sources," HTR 92 (1999) 3-36
11. M. Kister, "Studies in 4QMiqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah and Related Texts: Law, Theology, Language and Calendar" (Hebrew), Tarbiz 68 (1999) 343-18
12. idem, Leviticus 1-16, 254-69
13. For additional connections between purity and morality, see Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 704-42
14. J. Klawans, "The Impurity of Immorality in Ancient Judaism," JJS 48 (1997) 1-16
15. idem, "Idolatry, Incest, and Impurity: Moral Defilement in Ancient Judaism," JSJ 29 (1998) 391-415
16. idem, Impurity and Sin, 143-50
17. For exclusion of murderers from sacred places and from public life in general, see R. Parker, Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983) 111, 114, 153, 322-23
18. For Egypt, see M. Weinfeld, "Instructions for Temple Visitors in Ancient Israel and in Ancient Egypt" (Hebrew), Tarbiz 62 (1992) 5-15
19. M. Douglas, "Pollution," Implicit Meanings (London and Boston: Routledge and Paul, 1975) 48-50
20. See L.H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1994)
21. M. Grossman, "Reading MMT: Genre and History," RevQ 20 (2001) 3-22
22. Kister, "Studies," 323, tends to conclude from this that, in contrast to the common view, there was no conflict between the sectarians and the Hasmoneans regarding the latter's right to the high priesthood since they are not from the house of Zadok
23. For this argument, see Regev, "The Temple Impurity," 140-41, 143
24. Eshel, "4QMMT," 53-65
25. Several scholars have already suggested this identification of the Wicked Priest regardless of MMT. See J.T. Milik, Ten Years of Discovery in the Wilderness of Judaea (trans. J. Strugnell; London: SCM Press, 1959) 84-87
26. G. Jeremias, Der Lehrer der Gerechtigkeit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963) 75-79
27. 3) 135
28. See Klawans, "Idolatry, Incest, and Impurity," 406-9. Even scholars who tend to see the Temple Scroll as a non-sectarian cannot ignore its important influence on Qumranic halakhah
29. Cf. Schiffman, "Miqscombining dot belowat Ma'áseh Ha-Torah and the Temple Scroll."
30. Klawans, "The Impurity of Immorality," 8-10
31. Parker, Miasma, 94-100
32. For example, although Plato sees pollution as a real thing and not as legalized fiction, he does not ascribe horror to it (Parker, Miasma, 112-13)
33. For the characteristics of dualism in Qumran and their supposed history, see J. Frey, "Different Patterns of Dualistic Thought in the Qumran Library: Reflections on their Background and History," Legal Texts and Legal Issues, 275-335 and bibliography
34. It is also interesting to note that in Zoroastrianism, the implications of impurity are cosmic since they are associated with the evil Ahiram. See M. Boyce, A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977) 94
35. See E. Pagels, "The Social History of Satan, the 'Intimate Enemy': A Preliminary Sketch," HTR 84 (1991) 105-28
36. For Conflict Theory, see L. Cosar, The Functions of Social Conflict (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956)
37. For the social interaction described here, cf. S. Schachter, "Deviation, Rejection and Communication," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 46 (1951) 190-209
38. L. Festinger, "Informal Social Communication," Psychological Review 57 (1950) 271-82
39. Wuthnow, Meaning and Moral Order, 66
40. C. Hempel, "The Penal Code Reconsidered," Legal Text and Legal Issues, 337-48
41. See Schiffman, Law Custom and Messianism, 248-52
42. idem, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 99-100
43. The significance of morality in the admission of novices was already noted by D. Flusser, "John's Baptism and the Dead Sea Sect," Jewish Sources in Early Christianity (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Sifriat Hapo'alim, 1979) 85-87
44. For the parallelism with the fellowship (without attention to the phenomenon of moral purity), cf. S. Lieberman, "The Discipline in the So-Called Dead Sea Manual of Discipline," JBL 71 (1951) 199-206
45. For the "human Temple theory" see Klinzing, Die Umdeutung des Kultus, 50-106 and also n. 75 below
46. (cf. Stegemann, The Qumran Library, 117-18)
47. Schwartz, Studies in the Jewish Background of Christianity, 19-24, points to this paradox, underscoring two opposite Qumranic notions of (priestly) descent. According to his view, although the sectarians did not reject the concept of the Temple, the persistence of its substitutes for more than a century probably led to their adjustment to living without a Temple
48. F. Schmidt, La pensée du Temple: de Jérusalem à Qoumrân (Paris: Les Éditions du Seuil, 1994) 134-41
49. For a denial of the literary evidence of the notion of the "human Temple" see D.R. Schwartz, "The Three Temples of 4QFlorilegium" RevQ 10 (1979-81) 83-89
50. For the essentiality of the holy center for maintaining cosmic order, especially by rituals in the Temple, see Smith, "Earth and Gods," 112-19
51. Jeremias, Der Lehrer der Gerechtigkeit, 79-126
52. C.W. Redekop, Mennonite Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989) 261-65
53. See J.M. Baumgarten, "274-278 4QToharot A-C," in J.M. Baumgarten et al., Qumran Cave 4.XXV: Halakhic Texts (DJD 35; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999) 79-122
54. idem, "The 4QZadokite Fragments on Skin Disease," JJS 41 (1990) 153-65
55. idem, "Zab Impurity in Qumran and Rabbinic Law," JJS 45 (1994) 273-77
56. idem, "Liquids and Susceptibility to Defilement in New 4Q Texts," JQR 84 (1994) 91-101
57. See also the practice of gradual purification (impure people practice ablution and thus obtain partial purification in order to eat non-sacred food, pray and study, since these activities demand a certain degree of sacredness) in Regev, "Pure Individualism," 177-80, 185, 188-89
58. For a socio-halakhic interpretation of the Qumran ritual baths, see E. Regev, "Ritual Baths of Jewish Groups and Sects in the Second Temple Period" (Hebrew), Cathedra 79 (1996) 3-21 with further bibliography
59. Baumgarten, "The Purification Liturgies," 202
60. Baumgarten, "The Purification Liturgies," 207-11
61. Cf. V. Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974)
62. followed by Baumgarten, Flourishing, 13-15