The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (79 page)

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Authors: Geza Vermes

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Col. VI
27. [In] the eastward-looking cave of the Pillar with two entrances, dig at the northern entrance three [c]ubits; there is a pitcher there, in it a book, under it 22 tal.
28. In the eastward-looking cave of the base of the Stone dig nine cubits at the entrance: 21 tal.
29. In the Dwelling of the Queen on the western side dig twelve cubits: 27 tal.
30. In the heap of stones which is at the Ford of the High Priest
Col. VII
dig nine [cubits]: 22 ... tal.
31. In the water conduit of Q ... [the grea]ter northern reservoir, in the four direc[tions] measure out twenty-[fo]ur cubits: four hundred talents.
32. In the nearby cave in the proximity of Bet ha-Qos dig six cubits: six silver bars.
33. At Doq under the eastern corner of the guard-post dig seven cubits: 22 tal.
34. At the mouth of the water exit of Koziba dig three cubits towards the rock: 60 tal., two talents of gold.
Col. VIII
35. [In the wa]ter conduit on the road east of Bet Ahsor, which is east of Ahzor, vessels of offering and books and a bar of sil[ver].
36. In the outside valley ... at the stone dig seventeen cubits underneath: 17 tal. of gold and silver.
37. In the heap of stones at the mouth of the Pottery ravine dig three cubits: 4 tal.
38. In the westward-looking stubble-field of ha-Sho, on the south side, at the underground chamber looking northwards dig twenty-four cubits: 66 tal.
39. In the irrigation of ha-Sho, at the stone sign in it, dig eleven cubits: 70 tal. of silver.
Col. IX
40. At the ‘dovecot' (small opening?) at the exit of ha-Notef, measure out from its exit thirteen cubits, two tusks and, on seven smooth stones, bars (corresponding to) four staters.
41. At ‘Violet-scarlet' over (past?) the eastward-looking underground chamber dig eight cubits ... (?): 23½.
42. In the underground chambers of Horon, in the seaward-looking underground chamber in the narrow part (?) dig sixteen cubits: 22 tal.
43. At Qob‘ah a large amount of money offerings (?).
44. At the ‘sound of waters' (waterfall) close to the edge of the gutter on the east side of the exit dig seven cubits: 9 tal.
45. In the underground cavity on the north side of the mouth of the gorge of Bet Tamar in the parched land of ... (?), all that is in it is
herem
(= devoted to the Temple).
46. At the ‘dovecot' which is at Mesad, at the [water] conduit,
Col. X
southward at the second stair descending from the top: 9 tal.
47. In the cistern next to the canals fed by the Great Wadi, at the bottom: 12 tal.
48. At the reservoir which is in Bet Kerem going to the left of ten notches: sixty-two talents of silver.
49. At the pond of the valley of ‘YK (?) on its western side is a ma'ah coin coupled with two ma‘ahs. This is the entrance: three hundred talents of gold and twenty pitched vessels.
50. Under the ‘Hand' (= Monument) of Absalom on the western side dig twelve notches: 80 tal.
51. At the pond of the privy of Siloa under the watering-trough: 17 tal.
52. [At ... ] in the four
Col. XI
angles: gold and vessels of offering.
53. Next to them under the corner of the southern portico at the tomb of Zadok under the pillar of the covered hall: vessels of offering of resin and offering of senna.
54. Next to them at the ... (?) at the top of the westward-looking rock towards the garden of Zadok under the great closing stone which is at the conduit: devoted things.
55. In the tomb which is under the galleries (?): 40 tal.
56. In the tomb of the Sons of ... (?) the Yerahite, in it: vessels of offering of cedar, offering of resin.
57. Next to them, at Bet-Eshdatain (Bethesda), in the reservoir where you enter the small pool: vessels of offering of aloes, offering of ... (?)
58. Next to them, at the western entrance of the tomb is a channel over ... nine hundred [tal. of silver]
Col. XII
5 tal. of gold.
59. Sixty talents at its entrance from the west under the black stone.
60. Near to them under the threshold of the sepulchral chamber: 42 tal.
61. On Mount Gerizim under the stairs of the higher underground cavity a box and its contents and 60 tal. of silver.
62. At the mouth of the spring of Bet-Sham vessels of silver and vessels of gold of offering and silver. In all, six hundred talents.
63. In the great underground duct of the sepulchral chamber towards the house of the sepulchral chamber. The whole weighing 71 talents and twenty minas.
64. In the underground cavity which is in the smooth rock north of Kohlit whose opening is towards the north with tombs at its mouth there is a copy of this writing and its explanation and the measurements and the details of each item.
Cryptic Texts
(4Q249, 250, 313)
A large number of minute papyrus fragments written in a cryptic script have been assembled under the tide 4Q249. The editor, S. J. Pfann, has subdivided them into several units, the most important of which are
The Midrash on the Book ofMoses
(4Q249) and the cryptic
Messianic Rule
(4Q249a-i) reconstructed on the basis of 1QSa. The remainder (4Q249j-z; 250a-j; 313a-b) are mostly unidentified. The pieces are so small that they possess no independent significance. Even in the case of twenty-two fragments of the Messianic Rule the reconstruction presumes that the text of the Cave 1 manuscript is ‘canonical'. Should it, like most other Qumran manuscripts, lack definite wording, the placement of the unconnected tiny scraps would become uncertain. The dating of the script of the Messianic Rule to the middle of the second century BCE is also highly questionable. It cannot have been written before the Community Rule and the Damascus Document and very likely belongs to the mid-first century BCE.
For the
editio princeps,
see S. J. Pfann,
DJD,
XXXV, 1-24;
DJD,
XXXVI, 515-701.
4Q249
i
(The letters in italics indicate the surviving text. The rest is hypothetical reconstruction. The examples below are meant to illustrate the nature of the conjectures. The presumed subject is leprosy and the cleansing of garments and of the house; cf. Leviticus xiv.)
 
[As it is written,]
And he went down
(in)
the house
[of the king to the secretary's chamber (Jer. xxxvi, 12?)... F]or the [greenish and reddish]
cavities
(?)
... from under the
[greenish or reddish (?)] ... [and after]
being scraped in it to
b[ring them out from the city]
... from the house ...
[the dust and]
the sto[ne]s and the
[wood] ... [after]
removing the
[stones] ... [the plague-spot has
returned] to the house and demolish
[the house] ... [al]
l without
[plague-spot] in [it] ... one [judge]
ment
...
[As it is written: the fish that is in the riv]er
will die
(Ex. vii, 18?)
in
...
4Q249a, fr. 1 (= 1QSa i, 4-8)
[coming from little children] t[o women, and they shall read into their ears all the precepts of the Covena]
nt and to
ex[pound to them all their statutes that they may no longer stray in their err]
ors
.
And
[this is the Rule for all the host of the congregation, for every]
na
[tive] in
I
[srael. From his youth they shall inst]
ru
[ct him] in the
B
[ook of Meditation and according to his age they shall make him understand the precepts of the Coven]
a
[nt. And he shall receive his discipline in their judgements for ten] years
Two Qumran Ostraca
In the spring of 1996 two Hebrew ostraca were found by Professor James F. Strange of the University of South Florida. They were discovered in the base of the eastern face of the wall separating the community centre from the cemetery. The script is dated to the first century CE.
For the editio
princeps,
see F. M. Cross and E. Eshel,
DJD,
XXXVI, 497-508.
96
Ostracon no. 1
1. In year two of the [...]
2. in Jericho, Honi son of [ ] gave
3. to ‘El'azar son of Nahmani [ ]
4. Hisday from Holon [ ]
5. from this day to perpetui[ty]
6. the boundaries of the house and [ ]
7. and the fig trees, the ol[ive tree (?), and ]
8. when he fulfilled (his oath) to the Community (?) [ ]
9. and Honi [ ]
10. to him His[day (?) ]
11. and the [ ]
12. And into the hand of [ ]
13. [ ]
14. Hisday servant of H[oni (?) ]
15. Holon
The text documents the gift of a slave, together with an estate and produce. Reference is made to fulfilling an oath, or a period of time as a neophyte, to the
Yahad
in line 8, using the term
kml
(
‘
)
wtw lyhd,
‘when he fulfilled (his oath) to the Community'. This terminology resembles that of the Community Rule (1QS vi), and as such may hint that this ostracon is a draft of an accounting
(heshbon)
of the Overseer.
97
The proposed reading, especially in lines 4 and 8, has been queried by various scholars, Ada Yardeni among them (‘A Draft Deed on an Ostracon from Khirbet Qumran‘,
IEJ
47 (1997), 233-7). According to Yardeni, instead of ‘Hisday from Holon' (
't Hsdy mHwln)
one should read ‘these sackcloths' ('t
hsqym hllw),
and instead of ‘when he fulfilled (his oath) to the Community'
(wkmlwttw lyhd
), ‘and every other tree'
(wkwl 'yln
‘
hr
). The damaged cursive script of the ostracon being what it is, Ada Yardeni's readings are perfectly possible. Nevertheless ‘sackcloths' at the head of a list of valuable gifts is quite out of place. Also, whereas the editors'
yhd
(Community) is questionable, their interpretation regarding the handing-over of personal property to the sect is supported by the absence of any indication of family relationship between the donor and recipient. Normally, a free gift, i.e. with no exchange of money, presupposes close family links, for example a gift from father to daughter.
Ostracon no. 2
A second ostracon, written by a different hand of the same period, reads:
1. (?)
2. (?)
3. [Jose]ph son of Nathna[el...]
4. his [s]ons from ‘En Gedi(?)
I. Appendix
Scroll Catalogue
Perhaps the greatest disservice rendered to scholarship by Roland de Vaux and his successors resulted from their obstinate refusal to release the list of the unpublished texts from Caves 4 and 11. ‘Outsiders' were not only denied access to them but were not even allowed to know what exactly they were not permitted to see! We had to wait until the spring of 1992 for Emanuel Tov, editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project since 1990, to correct this injustice by releasing the long-awaited ‘secrets' and publishing them, at my invitation, in
the Journal of Jewish Studies.
Here follows a complete inventory of the manuscripts and fragments discovered in the eleven Qumran caves together with source references for all the published texts.
1
For the final list of all the manuscript finds at Qumran, the other Judaean caves, Wadi Daliyeh, Khirbet Mird and Masada, see E. Tov,
DJD,
XXXLX, 27-114.
 
NB. A list of the abbreviations used appears on pp. 91-2.
CAVE 1

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