the Bible and even allow us to determine their biblical midrashic basis
from their phraseology.
When we come to the actual subject matter of the laws, the situation is
also complex. Some laws and their derivation from Scripture seem to be
virtually the same, as, for example, the statement that the Sabbath begins
on Friday at sunset. Although some of the laws are very similar, such as the
requirements to wear clean clothes on the Sabbath, others differ more ex-
tensively, such as the establishment of two separate Sabbath limits or the
setting up of courts of ten for judging issues of Jewish civil law. These dif-
ferences almost always derive from differing interpretations of Scripture.
This is certainly the case with theTemple Scroll,whose laws and interpreta-
tions are often at variance with those of the rabbis.
Nevertheless, these differences often constitute a conceptual link be-
tween the Second Temple texts and the rabbinic corpus. In many cases, it is
only the alternative interpretations in the Dead Sea Scrolls that allow us to
understand the intellectual world within which the talmudic views were
being put forth. Much research remains to be done in this area, and one
example must suffice here: It is clear that rabbinic laws pertaining to ritual
purity and prayer are closely linked to Temple purity laws preserved in the
Temple Scrolland other Qumran documents. There is simply no other way
to understand these laws, even as presented in the Babylonian Talmud.
It is generally accepted that ancient Judaism knew two separate ap-
proaches to Jewish law, that of the Zadokite priestly tradition and that of
the Pharisees and rabbis. The former approach typifies the codes of the
Qumran sect and such works asJubileesand theAramaic Levi Document.
These trends were opposed by the Pharisaic-rabbinic approach preserved
for us in talmudic literature. Due to the strictures of the Pharisees against
writing down their traditions or other vicissitudes of preservation, the
Pharisaic-rabbinic tradition is represented only in the later corpus of the
talmudic rabbis. Nonetheless, it is possible to reconstruct the early layers
of that material and in so doing often to reconstruct the Pharisaic views
that were opposed, explicitly or implicitly, by the authors of the Dead Sea
Scrolls. The Scrolls have enabled us to uncover an earlier layer of history
in which the approach later ensconced in rabbinic works competed with
the priestly approach for dominance in the halakic market. The impor-
tance of this perspective in understanding rabbinic literature cannot be
overestimated.
This is especially the case when rabbinic literature itself preserves evi-
dence for the content of the Zadokite tradition. After the removal of those425Early Judaism and Rabbinic JudaismEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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