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Sectarian Literature
The Dead Sea Scrolls Despite the sect’s notions of predestination and their view that the nations—the non-Jews—would be destroyed in the End of Days, it nonetheless recognized the institution of proselytism—religious conversion to Judaism—that apparently existed by that time. Proselytes appear in the lists of the classes making up the sect- They shall all be […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls We have already seen that the Zadokite Fragments prohibits the support of idolatrous practices. The Temple Scroll, in recapitulating biblical legislation on this topic, also addresses the issue. In the introduction to the scroll, the author, basing himself on Exodus 34-10–17, restates the obligation to destroy idolatrous cult objects and to […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls At the beginning of the preserved portion of the Temple Scroll (2-1–15), in the same context as the requirement to destroy pagan cult objects, we find restated the biblical prohibition against making covenants with the nations of Canaan, who are to be destroyed (Exodus 34-10–16). Both the Bible and the scroll […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls Although the Qumran corpus contains neither specific information about what constitutes Jewish identity nor, hence, how to define a non-Jew, it does offer numerous laws relating to non-Jews. The regulations of the Zadokite Fragments on this topic begin by legislating- Let him not put forth his hand to shed the blood […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The Halakhic Letter contains (of a total of twenty-two) two laws relating to non-Jews. The founders of the sect, writing to their former priestly colleagues in Jerusalem soon after 152 B.C.E., criticize them for accepting grain offerings (terumah) from the produce of non-Jews- [And regarding the g]rain of the [non-Jews, which […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls NON-JEWS IN SECTARIAN TEACHING The long Admonition at the beginning of the Zadokite Fragments is almost entirely directed to intra-Jewish issues, especially to the sect’s self-image and polemic with the Pharisees. The only time that non-Jews appear here is in a pesher-like exegesis of Deuteronomy 32-33 (“Their wine is the venom […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls Because the calendar used by Jews in this period and the controversies surrounding it run as a leitmotif throughout our discussion of prayer, sacrifice, and the Temple in Qumran texts, it is appropriate here to outline this controversy and its ramifications. Numerous texts in the Qumran sectarian corpus castigate the sect’s […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.550-553. This Tosefta passage, when compared with the Mishnaic parallel presented above (text 10.6.4) shows how the Tosefta constitutes the earliest commentary to the Mishnah, assembling earlier versions of some traditions and later expansions as well in approximately the same order as […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The Mishnah deals with the fixing of the calendar, specifying four New Year periods and prescribing the manner of observing the moon to determine the lunar months. This passage illustrates disputes between the Houses of Hillel and Shammai and between later tannaim. 1- 1 There are four “New Year” days- on […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.522. Tannaitic tradition understood the dual-Torah concept to be confirmed by the Bible. This concept shows that the tannaim maintained that both Torahs had been given by God to Israel. “And thy law to Israel” (Deut. 33-10)- This teaches that two laws […]
