The Biblical Archaeologist - Vol.53, N.2

65 Pages·1990·15.44 MB·English

by  American Schools of Oriental Research

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Archaeologist
Biblical
A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research Volume 53 Number 2 June 1990
The New Halakhic Letter( 4QMMT)a nd the Origins 64
of the Dead Sea Sect
Lawrence H. Schiffman
A Qumran scholar discusses the historical implications of the
soon-to-be-published halakhic document, 4Q Miqsat Macaseh
Ha-Torah.
Commentary
The EliakimN acarY okanS ealI mpressionsS: ixtyY ears 74
of Confusioni n BiblicalA rchaeologicaRl esearch
YosefG arfinkel
Confusion caused by the misinterpretation of one inscription
provides a good illustration of how difficult it is to integrate
material culture and historical events.
The Figureo f the Paidagogosi n Art and Literature 80
Page 74 Norman H. Young
When Paul used the term paidag6gos (pedagogue)t o describe the law
until the coming of Christ, he used a metaphor for which there is
no agreed upon interpretation. What clues to Paul's meaning can be
found in visual examples of the pedagogue from the ancient world?
KhirbetR os Zayit- BiblicalC abul: 88
A Historical-GeographicCala se
Zvi Gal
Evidence gathered from the Lower Galilee survey suggests a possible
identification for biblical Cabul and helps outline some of the
historical-geographical characteristics of the Lower Galilee during
the Iron Age.
BA Guide to Artifacts
Page 80 Seashells and Ancient Purple Dyeing 98
I. Irving Ziderman
Purple dyeing was a major source of economic prosperity in the
ancient Phoenician city-states. A fiber expert from Israel describes
the use of seashells in the process.
The Use and Abuse of Archaeology in Current 104
One-VolumeB ible Commentaries
Victor H. Matthews and James C. Moyer
In the third of a series of in-depth book review articles, eight
one-volume Bible commentaries are evaluated with an emphasis on
their use of archaeological information to illuminate the Bible.
Introducintgh e Authors 62
BookR eviews 116
On the Cover:A pedagogue,s eated and holding a staff, looks on while his charger eceives
Page8 8 instruction in poetry and music. Photo courtesy of the Staatliche Museen Preussischer
Kulturbesitz,B erlin (West).
Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990 61
YosefG arfinkel
A participant in many archaeological excavations at
biblical and Neolithic sites, Yosef Garfinkel is a doctoral
student at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. He has directed excavations at
the the pre-pottery, Neolithic B village of Yiftahel in the
Introducing Authors LowerG alilee and at the pre-pottery,N eolithic A site and
Middle Bronze IIa cemetery at Gesher in the central
JordanV alley.
LawrenceH . Schiffman is Professoro f Hebrew and Judaic
Studies at New YorkU niversity. For the past year he has Norman H. Youngi s Senior Lectureri n New Testament at
been a Fellow of the Institute for AdvancedS tudies of the Avondale College in Cooranbong,A ustralia. He received
Hebrew University of Jerusalema nd has participatedi n a his Ph.D. from Manchester University in 1973. A
research group focusing on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr. member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, Dr.
Schiffman is a member of the Association for Jewish Young has published numerous articles about New
Studies, the World Union of Jewish Studies, and the Testament writings. He is the author of Rebuke and
Society of Biblical Literature. He also serves on the Challenge: The Point of Jesus'Parables( Washington,D C:
editorial board of the Journal of Biblical Literature as Review & Herald Publishing Company).
chairman of the section on Qumran.
LawrenceH . Schiffman Norman H. Young
62 Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990
Zvi Gal VictorH . Matthews
Victor H. Matthews is Professor of Religious Studies at
Southwest Missouri State University. He has published
Zvi Gal is a faculty member in the Department of the several articles in Biblical Archaeologist as well as two
Land of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa. He books, PastoralN omadism in the Mari Kingdom (Ameri-
received his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. Fort he past can Schools of Oriental Research Dissertation Series 3,
15 years he has conducted comprehensive surveys in the 1978) and Manners and Customs in the Bible (Hendrick-
LowerG alilee as well as excavations at various sites such son Publishers, 1988).H e is co-author,w ith Don C. Benja-
as Tel Qarney Hittin and 'TelM ador. Dr. Gal has been min of Rice University, of a forthcoming volume from
director of the Khirbet Ro' Zayit excavations since 1983. Paulist Press titled Old Testament Parallels: Stories and
Laws from the Ancient Near East.
A 1957 graduateo f University College (London),I . Irving
Ziderman earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Currently serving as Book Review Editor for Biblical
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.S ince 1966 he has been Archaeologist, James C. Moyer is Professor of Religious
Senior Research Scientist at the Israel Fiber Institute in Studies and Head of the Department of Religious Studies
Jerusalem,h eading the Laboratoryf or Natural Fiber and at Southwest Missouri State University. He has excavated
CarbohydrateC hemistry. Dr. Ziderman serves on execu- at Gezer, Raddana,a nd The City of David. His publica-
tive committees of the IsraelT extile Association and the tions include several articles for Biblical Archaeologist
Israel Association of Concerned Scientists. He is also and a co-edited book, with William W. Hallo and Leo G.
Associate Editor of Yalkut, a publication of the Israel Perdue, Scripture in Context II: More Essays on the
textile industry. ComparativeM ethod (Eisenbrauns,1 983).
I. Irving Ziderman James C. Moyer
Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990 63
The New HalakhiLce tter
and of
(4QMMT) the Origins
the Dead Sea Sect
byL awrenceHS.c htffman
since the initial announcement
of the Qumran text titled 4Q
Miqsat Macaseh Ha-Torah
(Qimron and Strugnell 1985a),i t has
become clear that this text is very
significant for our understandingo f
the history of Jewish law and, in par-
ticular, for unraveling the difficult
question of the provenanceo f the
Temple Scroll and its relationship to
the Qumran sectarian corpus.'
The text is important for another
issue, namely, the origins of the sect
and the early history of the Qumran
community. This document purports
to be a letter from the leaders of the
nascent sect to the leaders of the
(probablyp riestly) establishment in
Jerusalem.T he text sets out some 20
laws regardings acrificial law, priestly
gifts, ritual purity, and other matters
over which the writers disagreew ith
the Jerusalema uthorities. Stated in
a polemical manner, these laws
clearly represent the views of the
founders of the sect as opposed to
those of their opponents, whom the
sect calls upon to accept their view.
The laws are set within a framework
that may allow us to learn much
about the ideology of those who
authored the text. Such conclusions,
together with those that are being
gatheredf rom the study of the main
body of the document dealing with
matters of Jewish law, will allow us
to draw some tentative conclusions
regardingt he significance of this
text for the question of the origins of
the Qumran group.
64 Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990
It is important to reiterate that
this document, preservedi n six
manuscripts, purportst o be a letter.
It remains to be determined if it is
an actual letter, dating to the earliest 6N
days of the Qumran group,o r if it is
an apocryphalt ext written years, or
even decades, later to express the
fundamental reasons for the sect's
0
break, or schism, with the Jerusalem I25m
establishment. In any case, as indi-
cated by the number of copies that
have survived, this letter was un-
doubtedly significant in the life of
the sect. We will have to wait for the
full publication of the manuscripts
and paleographics tudy to clarify
this matter further (see Cross 1961)?
In the following pages, I will dis-
cuss the substance of the introduc-
tory sentence and the concluding
paragraphso f this document to ana-
lyze its stated ideology. Taking into
consideration the halakhic content
of the text, I will also offer some
general observations of the historical
significance of 4Q Miqsat Macaseh
Ha-Torah.
Structurea nd Content of the 'Txt
It is necessary to begin by giving
some sense of the overall structure the Pentateuch, the Torahi s referred
of the text. Fort he purposes of this to as sefer mosheh, the Book of
article, the text can be divided into Moses, or (ha-)sefer,t he Book (that
three sections: an introductory sen- is, Bible in the literal sense-Greek
tence setting out the nature of the ta-Biblion). Actually, no formal term
letter; a section listing the halakhic is used to characterizet he text as a
disagreements that the founders of whole. Its name, Miqsat Macaseh
the group claim to have had with the Ha-Torahc, omes from the descrip-
Jerusalema uthorities; and a con- tion of its contents in the conclud-
cluding section that raises several ing section of the text but was not
issues related to the group'ss chism. intended to be a title.
In at least one of the manuscripts, The Introduction. The initial intro-
Opposite page: WadiQ umran as seen from
the text proper is copied immediate- ductory sentence states that what the west looking east towardK hirbetQ umran
ly after a 364-day soli-solar calendar follows are some of "ourw ords"( note and the Dead Sea. From this immense wadi,
of the type known from some of the the use of the plural form), which or stream bed, ran a complex water system
leading to the cisterns and ritual baths of the
Qumran scrolls, Enoch and Jubilees are legal rulings (macasim, as in its settlement. Qumran was first inhabited after
(see Talmon 1989)? The opening of use in later Palestinian Hebrew;s ee 135 B.C.Ea.n d was destroyed by the Romans
the letter contains no designation Qimron and Strugnell 1985a:4 01, in 68 c.E.A ll photos are used courtesy of
LawrenceH . Schiffman. Above: Plan of the
for the document. The authors use 406, and note 5). These are rulings period lb ruins at Qumran, which date from
the expression katavnu (twice, once "weh old to"( restored:' anahnu the first centuryB .C.E.N ote the main entrance
restored), which indicates a written hoshevim). Further,t he text tells us (1); the assembly and dining hall (2);t he
potter'sw orkshop( 3);t he so-called Scriptorium
text. Normally the text uses katuv that these rulings concern only two (4); the kitchen area (5), where five fireplaces
as a rubric for quoting the Hebrew topics, one of which is in the lactna weref ound;a nd the aqueduct (6).A reass haded
Bible. Alongside the word torah, for and the second of which concerns by dots arec isterns.D rawingb y KentP Jackson.
BiblicalA rchaeologistJ, une1 990 65
the laws of purity (a better transla-
tion would be "ritualso f purifica-
tion").T he lacuna must have con-
tained a term like matanot (gifts to
the temple and priests) or qorbanot
(sacrifices).S uch a term would fit
the list of laws that follow (Schiffman
1989: 245-46). From this sentence
alone one can graspt he fundamental
point of the text, the halakhic dis-
agreements between this sect and
the Jerusaleme stablishment.
The Listing of the Laws.I n this sec-
tion the authors list 20 or so matters
of Jewish law, which, in their view,
resulted in the schism and formation
of their sect. The key point here is
that the fundamental disagreements
that led this group of dissatisfied
priests to withdraw from participa-
tion in the ritual of the Jerusalem
Temple pertained to matters of The opening of Cave 1 where bedouins discovered the first scrolls in 1947. This cave contained
Jewish law. Indeed, the major con- Hth6ed caeyn6ttr a(Tl wharintkinsggsiv oifn tghH ey Qmunms)r, aanns de tcht:e TWhea MrS carnoulla al so fw Deilsl caisp tliwnoe ,s Pcreoshllesr oo fn I sHaaiabha,k tkhue k,
flicts of Second Temple Judaismd id Genesis Apocryphon,a nd numerous sectarian compositions.
not result from disagreements over
messianism and other such theologi- people. This assertion is backed up (of righteousness) and, as a result,
cal matters but, rather,f rom issues by a general statement that the suffer misfortune.
of Jewish law. This does not mean addressees (plural,w e-'attem)k now This leads to an adaptationo f
that there may not have been mixed that the members of this dissident Deuteronomic material (this passage,
motives, but I want to emphasize group are reliable and honest, mean- to a great extent, is fragmentary).
the self-image of the founders of the ing that the list of laws is indeed The following texts are quoted:
Qumran sect who saw Jewish legal being strictly observed, as stated Deuteronomy 31:29 (compareD eu-
matters and interpretationo f the by the authors. teronomy 9:12, 16, and 11:28)a nd
Torah'sp rescriptions as the causes of At this point the letter explains Deuteronomy 30:1-27 The text of
the schism. Indeed, the entire sec- its purpose:T he sectarians have this scroll foretells that, in the end
tarian corpus testifies to such rea- written to the addressee (now in the of days," you"( singular)w ill return
sons for the split, and this text is in singular form) in ordert hat "you" to God (in the first person, as is com-
perfect accord with the picture pre- will investigate the words of the mon in the Temple Scroll; see Yadin
sented by the Zadokite Fragments, Torah( termedt he Book of Moses), 1983a: 71-73) and that all this is in
for example. the Prophets, and David, and the accord with what is written in the
The Concluding Section. After the history of the generations. It should Torah( againc alled the Book of
final law, the text turns to the con- be noted that this passage assumes Moses) and in the Prophets.T he
cluding section, which raises several the threefold canon of the Hebrew Writings are not mentioned here,
general issues. Befored iscussing Scriptures:T orah,P rophets, and probablyb ecause they do not con-
these issues, let me first present Writings.T he Writings are not yet tain blessings and curses, whereas
a detailed outline of this section a closed corpus, and the text may the earlier reference to the Writings
of the text.? specifically be referringt o the Book concerned the history of the period
The authors state that, by ac- of Chronicles, the primary subject of the monarchy,w hich is discussed
cepting the rulings listed in the pre- of which is David. in those texts. (There follows
vious section, they have separated Here the text turns to what is to another lacuna of several lines.)
(parashnu)f rom the mainstream be found in those biblical documents. The text now returns to the dis-
of the people (rovh a-cam)6a nd, The addressee is told, again in the cussion of the kings, recalling the
accordingly,h ave had to withdraw singular (aftera lacuna), that it was blessings that were fulfilled during
from participation in these rituals foretold that he (the addressee) the time of Solomon and his son
as performedb y the majority of the would turn aside from the path David and the curses visited on Israel
66 Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990
It thatt hisl etterw asw rittent o
appears
theh eado f theJ erusalemes tablishment,
knownt o us as the
highp riest.
from the days of Jeroboam,s on of The Nature of the Addressee as the high priest? The comparisons
Nebat, through the time of Zedekiah, One of the interesting features of this with the kings of Judaha nd Israel
the last king of Judah.T he writers text is the manner in which the num- must have been particularly appro-
(plural)n ow state that, in their view, ber (in the grammatical sense) of the priate for one who saw himself as
some of the blessings and curses have addressee shifts. In the introductory almost a royal figure. True royal
come to pass and that this (their sentence the letter is addressedt o an trappingsw ere later taken on by the
own day)i s the period of the end of individual ('elekha),b ut in the list of Hasmoneans who, on their coins,
days in which Israel is called upon to laws the authors'd ispute is with a styled themselves as kings. The
repent rather than to backslide. group ('attem," you"p lural).W hen transition must have been a gradual
Accordingly,t he addressee the list of laws is concluded and the one, however.10W hat we must have
(singular)i s exhorted to recall the text returns to its main argument, here is a letter either actually writ-
events surroundingt he reigns of the the singular is again used. ten to or purportingt o have been
kings of Israel and to examine their The addressee is admonished to written to a Hasmonean high priest.
deeds (macasehemah) and to note take care so that he will not go the
that those who observed the laws of way of the kings of the First Temple A Parallewl ith the T'ImpleS croll
the Torahw ere sparedm isfortune, period. Here the text is clearly ad- One significant parallel between
and their transgressions were for- dressing a figure who, because of his this text and the Temple Scroll
given (partlyr estored).T he text station in life, would be able to iden- (11QT)s hould be discussed in some
states that this was the case with tify with the ancient kings of bibli- detail." Both texts include sections
David, whom the addressee is asked cal Israel. It appearst hat this letter in which Pentateuchal materials
to remember.8 was written to the head of the Jeru- referringt o the people of Israel are
The authors (plural)n ow sum salem establishment, known to us taken to refer to the king himself. In
up why they have sent this text to
the addressee (singular).H ere the
phrase "MiqsatM acaseh Ha-Torah" Cave 4 was the source of a largeh oard, more than 400 fragmentarym anuscripts that included
texts of the Dead Sea sect and numerous other compositions dating to the Second Templep eriod
appears,m eaning, "someo f the legal as well as biblical texts. Among these manuscripts were six copies of 4Q Miqsat Macaseh
rulings of (that is, pertaining to) the Ha-Torah(4 QMMT)T. his photo was taken from the ruins of Qumranl ooking west.
Torah."T he authors state that the
letter is intended for the benefit of
the addressee and the nation. The
addressee is said to be wise and to
have sufficient knowledge of the
Toraht o understandt he halakhic
matters presented in the letter.
The writers then call on the ad-
dressee (singular)t o mend his ways
and remove all incorrect thought,
that is, incorrect views on matters
of Jewish law. This, the addressee is
told, will lead to rejoicing at the end
of this period (of the end of days,
be-'aharith a-cet), when he will come
to realize that the views of the sect
are indeed correct. The addressee's
resultant repentance will be con-
sidered a righteous deed, beneficial
both for him and for all of Israel (pre-
sumably in the eschatological sense).
Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990 67
4QM iqsaMt acaseHh a-Torahha sw ide
ramificatiofnosr t he of
history
in the Hasmonean
Judaism period.
Miqsat Macaseh Ha-Toraht,h e quo- seems most likely, therefore, that synonyms several times, yet it never
tations of Deuteronomy 31:29 and this halakhic letter was written by refers to itself by that name. Unlike
30:1-2 appeart o be referringe xclu- the collective leadership of the sect the author of the Temple Scroll, who
sively to the king (as can be seen in those initial years. Hence, the sees his text as a complete Torah,
from the text that follows). Deute- teacher does not appear. these authors are fully awareo f the
ronomy 31:29 is in the plural and distinction between the canonical
seems (if the restorations are cor- text of the Mosaic Toraha nd the
rect) to have been adaptedt o the letter they are writing. In addition, if
singular. In this way it was brought this halakhic letter is indeed a foun-
into agreement with Deuteronomy dation document, or if it purportst o
30:1-2, which are in the singular but be such, it would refer to a time
which, in their original context, before the Teachero f Righteousness
clearly referredt o the people of began to take a leading role in the
Israel.'2I t may be that the authors of affairs of the sect. The reference in
this document actually understood Pesher on Psalms, and all other ac-
the singular use of Deuteronomy to counts that seem to point to events
refer to the king, but the context in the life and careero f this sectarian
makes this unlikely. Most probably leader, would have had to have taken
we are dealing with the adaptation place after this text purports to have
of passages dealing with the people been penned.
of Israel to their ruler. The same Inside Cave 11 where the TempleS croll was In view of these strictures, any
found as well as the job Targum,t he Psalms
phenomenon is observablei n 11QT Scroll, the Paleo-HebrewL eviticus Scroll, and attempt to relate the "secondb ook of
59:16 in which the biblical rebuke other smaller texts, both biblical and the Torah"m entioned in 4Q Catena
passages directed in Scripture ncaovneb mibalikceasl icto umnpliokseiltyio tnhsa. tT ith ew saizs eu osef dth eiist her (Allegro 1968: 67-68; Strugnell
against the people as a whole are as a regulard welling place or as a permanent 1970: 236-48), also mentioned by
modified to make them refer to the storagep lace for texts. Morel ikely, scrolls Yigael Yadin( 1983a:3 96-97; see his
king (compareY adin 1983a:2 69-70 sweettrlee pmuetn hte. re prior to the destruction of the restoration),t o this text must be dis-
and Schiffman 1987b:2 55-57). In counted. We have to reckon with the
any case, this usage strengthens our PossibleQ umranA llusions probability that Miqsat Macaseh
assertion that this text, in its con- Twot antalizinga llusionsi n the Ha-Torahc annot be identified with a
cluding paragraphsi, s addressingt he scrollsf romQ umranm ightb e previously known text. It needs to be
ruler of the nation. understooda s referringto this par- emphasized nonetheless that the ref-
There is no mention in this text ticularl etter.M osti mportanti s a erence to the Torahs ent by the teach-
of the Teachero f Righteousness or passagei n the Peshero n Psalmst o er does indicate that such epistles
any other leader known from the Psalms3 7:32-33 (Allegro1 968: were not out of the question within
sectarian documents. The official 42-50; compareS trugnell1 970:2 16, the chronological and cultural con-
history of the sect presented in the whose correctionsm ust be followed). texts in which the sectarian scrolls
Zadokite Fragments (Damascus As restoredb y YigaelY adint, his pas- were written. That a letter such as
Document) claims that the sec- sager eferst o a "Toraht"h at the this might have been sent is not
tarians'i nitial separation from the Teachero f Righteousnesss ent to the beyond the realm of possibility.
main body of Israel took place some WickedP riest.Y adins uggestedt hat
20 years before the coming of the this mightb e a referencet o the HistoricalR amifications
teacher.13I do not wish to engage in TempleS croll( 1983a3: 96).I t might 4Q Miqsat Macaseh Ha-Torahh as
a discussion of the exact chronologi- also be suggestedt hat this Torahw as wide ramifications for the history of
cal accounting, but I take this pas- the text of MiqsatM acasehH a- Judaismi n the Hasmonean period.
sage as indicating that the schism Torah,1b4 ut this suggestions eems In the 20 or so disputes listed in this
took place some time before the sect most unlikely.T his text explicitly text, the view ascribedb y the letter
came to be led by the teacher. It uses the term" Toraha"n dv arious to the opponents of the emerging
68 Biblical Archaeologist, June 1990