Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

MMT is as an epistolary treatise of which the central part (called B by

the editors) consists of a survey of legal issues. They deal mainly with the

purity of the sanctuary. The authors (“we”) apparently disagree (some-

times with a direct appeal to Scripture) with either contemporary Temple

practices or their opponents’ views. In several cases, the points of discus-

sion are known from rabbinic literature, where the “we” position of MMT

is ascribed to the Zadokites/Sadducees and the opposite position to the

Pharisees.

The publication of both texts and their subsequent study had a large

impact on Scrolls studies. It became clear that theTemple Scrolldid not fit

in with the then known “sectarian” texts, and this confirmed the suspicion

that the corpus contained works from different, albeit related, groups.

MMT has been interpreted as a foundational document, summing up the

calendrical and legal disputes with the Jerusalem priests and the Pharisees.

For the study of early Judaism, the legal texts confirm that the rabbinic

descriptions of legal discussions between Sadducees and Pharisees were

not anachronistic inventions but debates already current in the Hasmo-

nean era. Also, the legal texts attest to practices that are much earlier than

the rabbinic texts in which they are recorded. This goes, for example, for

theminyan(minimum of ten men) described inRule of the Congregation

(1QSa), theRule of the Community(1QS; see fig. 41), and theDamascus

Document(CD). More generally, the mere existence of written law codes in

Second Temple Judaism is at odds with the Pharisaic-rabbinic rule that

extrabiblical legal traditions should remain oral.

The topics under discussion in the legal texts shed light on issues that

had become important in the second and first centuryb.c.e., such as Sab-

bath and purity. This holds for purity concerns in general, and for the pu-

rity of the Temple and Jerusalem in particular, an issue that may reflect a

reaction to the defilement of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. Typical

of the purity laws included in the corpus is that they are in general more

stringent than the later rabbinic purity laws. Some texts extend the concept

of purity from ritual to moral issues.

Harmonizing Times and Festivals:

Calendrical Documents and Annals

The corpus contains a small amount of generally badly preserved

calendrical documents, most of which are actually lists. These lists include

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The Dead Sea Scrolls

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:04 PM