The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (36 page)

When the judges have finished addressing the army, they shall appoint army captains at the head of the people.

When you approach a city to fight it, (first) offer it peace. If it seeks peace and opens (its gates) to you, then all the people found in it shall become your forced labourers and shall serve you. If it does not make peace with you, but is ready to fight a war against you, you shall besiege it and I will deliver it into your hands. You shall put all its males to the sword, but the women, the children, the beasts and all that is in the city, all its booty, you may take as spoil for yourselves. You may enjoy the use of the booty of your enemies which I give you. Thus shall you treat the very distant cities, those which are not among the cities of these nations. But in the cities of the peoples which I give you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive any creature. Indeed you shall utterly exterminate the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites and the Perizzites as I have commanded you, that they may not teach you to practise all the abominations that they have performed to their gods.

LXIII
... [a heifer with which] he has not worked, which [has not drawn the yoke. The elders of] that city [shall bring down] the heifer to a ravine with an ever-flowing stream which has never been sown or cultivated, and there they shall break its neck.

The priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for I have chosen them to minister before me and bless my name, and every dispute and every assault shall be decided by their word. All the elders of the city nearest to the body of the murdered man shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer whose neck has been broken in the ravine. They shall declare, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it happen. Accept expiation for thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed, O YHWH, and do not permit the guilt of innocent blood to rest among thy people, Israel. Let this blood be expiated for them.' You shall rid Israel (of the guilt) of innocent blood, and you shall do that which is correct and good before YHWH, your God. When you go to war against your enemies, and I deliver them into your hands, and you capture some of them, if you see among the captives a pretty woman and desire her, you may take her to be your wife. You shall bring her to your house, you shall shave her head, and cut her nails. You shall discard the clothes of her captivity and she shall dwell in your house, and bewail her father and mother for a full month. Afterwards you may go to her, consummate the marriage with her and she will be your wife. But she shall not touch whatever is pure for you for seven years, neither shall she eat of the sacrifice of peace-offering until seven years have elapsed. Afterwards she may eat.
LXIV
... [the firstfruits of his virility; he has the right of the first-born.]

If a man has a disobedient and rebellious son who refuses to listen to his father and mother, nor listens to them when they chastise him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is disobedient and rebellious; he does not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' All the men of his city shall stone him with stones and he shall die, and you shall rid yourselves of evil. All the children of Israel shall hear of it and be awe-stricken. If a man slanders his people and delivers his people to a foreign nation and does evil to his people, you shall hang him on a tree and he shall die. On the testimony of two witnesses and on the testimony of three witnesses he shall be put to death and they shall hang him on the tree. If a man is guilty of a capital crime and flees (abroad) to the nations, and curses his people, the children of Israel, you shall hang him also on the tree, and he shall die. But his body shall not stay overnight on the tree. Indeed you shall bury him on the same day. For he who is hanged on the tree is accursed of God and men. You shall not pollute the ground which I give you to inherit. If you see your kinsman's ox or sheep or donkey straying, do not neglect them; you shall indeed return them to your kinsman. If your kinsman does not live near you, and you do not know who he is, you shall bring the animal to your house and it shall be with you until he claims (it).
LXV
...

[Wh]en a bird's nest happens to lie before you by the roadside, on any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, and the hen is sitting on the fledglings or the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. You shall surely let the hen escape and take only the young so that it may be well with you and your days shall be prolonged. When you build a new house, you shall construct a parapet on the roof so that you do not bring blood-guilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.

When a man takes a wife, has sexual intercourse with her and takes a dislike to her, and brings a baseless charge against her, ruining her reputation, and says, ‘I have taken this woman, approached her, and did not find the proof of virginity in her', the father or the mother of the girl shall take the girl's proof of virginity and bring it to the elders at the gate. The girl's father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to be this man's wife; he has taken a dislike to her and has brought a baseless charge against her saying, “I have not found the proof of virginity in your daughter.” Here is the proof of my daughter's virginity.' They shall spread out the garment before the elders of that city. The elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him. They shall fine him one hundred pieces of silver which they shall give to the father of the girl, because he (the husband) has tried to ruin the reputation of an Israelite virgin. He shall not
LXVI
... [When a virgin betrothed to a man is found by another man in the city and he lies with her, they shall bring both of them to the gate] of that city and stone them with stones and they shall be put to death: the girl because she has not shouted (for help, although she was) in the city, and the man because he has dishonoured his neighbour's wife. You shall rid yourselves of evil. If the man has found the woman in the fields in a distant place hidden from the city, and raped her, only he who has lain with her shall be put to death. To the girl they shall do nothing since she has committed no crime worthy of death. For this affair is like that of a man who attacks his neighbour and murders him. For it was in the fields that he found her and the betrothed girl shouted (for help), but none came to her rescue.

When a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, but is suitable to him according to the rule, and lies with her, and he is found out, he who has lain with her shall give the girl's father fifty pieces of silver and she shall be his wife. Because he has dishonoured her, he may not divorce her all his days. A man shall not take his father's wife and shall not lift his father's skirt. A man shall not take the wife of his brother and shall not lift the skirt of his brother, the son of his father or the son of his mother, for this is unclean. A man shall not take his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, for this is abominable. A man shall not take his father's sister or his mother's sister, for this is immoral. A man shall not take the daughter of his brother or the daughter of his sister for this is abominable. (A man) shall not take
LXVII
...

Mutilated fragments of six Cave 4 manuscripts have acquired international notoriety on account of a lawsuit filed before the Jerusalem district court which found that one of the official editors of this text, Elisha Qimron, owned the copyright of the MMT text as reconstructed by him. Hershel Shanks, of the Biblical Archaeology Society of Washington, was held responsible for breaching this copyright and ordered to pay $43,000 damages. However, an appeal having been lodged with the Israeli Supreme Court, the matter is still
subjudice.

When the contents of the six copies are assembled into a single account, they amount to 120 lines mostly of a fragmentary nature. The document begins with a sectarian calendar (section A), which may or may not pertain to the original MMT; it continues with a series of special rules (section B), and ends with an exhortation (section C). MMT has been called an epistle, but since it lacks the introductory and concluding formulae of a letter, it is more likely to be a kind of legal tractate. It is addressed to a single leading personality who is compared to King David. The
dramatis personae
consist of a ‘we' party, a ‘you' party, and a ‘they' party. The group responsible for MMT, who refer to themselves as ‘we‘, seek to detach the leader of the ‘you' party from the erroneous views propounded by the ‘they' party. The editors claim that MMT was written by the Teacher of Righteousness and sent to the Wicked Priest; that the views of the ‘we' party are akin to those of the Sadducees; and that the ‘they' party are the Pharisees. However, these are no more than hypotheses. In particular, the identification of the author with the Teacher of Righteousness is less likely than that of the leader of the ‘you' group with the man who was to become the Wicked Priest, probably Jonathan Maccabaeus.

It has also been advanced that the original nucleus of the Qumran Community, responsible for MMT, consisted of early or proto-Sadducees. However, one should bear in mind that the priests in this writing are never called sons of Zadok or Sadducees, but are referred to as sons of Aaron (cf. 4QS
^b
(=4Q
256
) and 4QS
^d
(4Q
258
) above, p. 118). The alleged Sadducee connection relies on three legal rules, out of a list of more than twenty, in MMT which represent opinions identical with the halakhah attributed in rabbinic literature to the Sadducees, and contrasted with the stance taken by the Pharisees (cf. mParah 5:4 and MMT B 13-17; mYad 4:7; mToh 8:9 and MMT B 55-8; mYad 4:6 and MMT B 72-4).

The chief topics of controversy are (I) the calendar (if it is an integral part of the document); (2) ritual purity (acceptability of Gentile offerings, law on slaughter, the ‘red heifer' ritual, exclusion of the blind and the deaf, law relating to lepers, purity of running liquids, fourth-year fruit and tithe of cattle, ban on dogs in Jerusalem, the law regulating contact with dead bodies); (3) marriage and intermarriage rules, and (4) decrees regulating entry into the congregation. MMT is particularly important as a source of ancient legal debate. It is unique among the Dead Sea Scrolls and foreshadows the halakhic process developed and practised by later rabbis.

Instead of presenting a composite text, the translation will reflect actual manuscripts and follow their line numbering. If there are overlapping fragments, gaps in the main manuscript will be filled from the parallel text and the borrowing will appear between {}. However, to assist the reader who desires to consult the Qimron-Strugnell edition, the line numbers of their composite text are given in brackets. Unlike the editors, I have been economical with purely conjectural restorations of the many gaps. Obscurities in the translation therefore faithfully reflect the real status of the Hebrew original.

For the
editio princeps,
see E. Qimron and J. Strugnell,
Qumran Cave 4
,
V (DJD,
X, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994).

(The fragmentary calendar is presented in five parallel columns which originally covered eighteen lines. Hence the end of the calendar at the top of 4Q
394
3-7 i is listed as lines 19 to 21 by Qimron-Strugnell. Whether this calendar is part of the original MMT or is merely copied on the same scroll is uncertain.)

 

I
[On the sixteenth of it (of the second month): sabbath.]

On the twenty-third of it: sabbath.

[On] the thir[tie]th [of it: sabbath.

On the seventh of the third month: sabbath.

On the fourteenth of it: sabbath.

On the fifteenth of it: Feast of Weeks.

On the twenty-]
II
[f]irs[t] of it: sabbath.

[On] the twenty-eighth of it: sabbath.

The first of the sabbath (=Sunday), and the secon[d da]y (=Monday) [and the third are to be added.

And the season is complete: ninety-one days.

The first of the fourth month: Memorial day.

On the fourth]
III
of it: [sabbath.]

On the e[leventh] of it: sabbath.

On the eighteenth of it: sabbath.

On the twenty-fifth of it: sabbath.

On the second of the fift[h] (month): [sa]bb[ath.

On the third of it: Feast of Wine, first of sabbath (Sunday).]

IV
[On the ninth of it: sabbath.]

On the sixteenth of it: sabbath.

On the twenty-third of it: sabbath.

[On the th]irtieth [of it: sabbath.

On the seventh of the sixth (month): sabbath.

On the fourteenth of it: sabbath.

On the twenty-first]
V
of it: sabbath.

On the twenty-second of it: Feast of Oil, fir[st of sab]bath (Sunday). Af[terwards]: offe[ring of Wood].

(
19
) [The (twenty)-eighth of it (of the twelfth month)]: sabbath.

The first [of the] s[abbath (=Sunday) and the second day (=Monday) and the third are to be ad]ded to it. (
20
) And the year is complete: three-hundred and si[xty-four]
(21)
days.
vacat

(I)
These are some of our teachings [ ] which are [
(2)
the] works which w[e think and a]ll of them concern [ ]
(
3
)
and the purity of...

[And concerning the offering of the wh]eat of the [Gentiles which they ...]
(4)
and they touch it ... and de[file it ... One should not accept anything]
(
₅
)
from the wheat [of the Gen]tiles [and none of it is] to enter the Sanctuary.