The Book of Jubilees and the Temple Scrollconsider the contents of Jubilees below, we will treat the entire work, relying
on the Ethiopic version and the Greek fragments. We shall also note at the
outset that the book is quoted explicitly in CD 16:2-4. Some have taken this
as an indication of canonicity at Qumran, because of the use of the expres
sion meduqdaq 'al sefer.^1 *
For the most part, the Jubilees manuscripts evidence a text written in
biblical Hebrew orthography and writing practice that follows essentially the
language pattern to which we have become accustomed from our printed
Bibles.^15 Some orthographic points indicate phonetic changes that had
taken place by the second century B.C.E., as is even the case in the Masoretic
text and in proto-Masoretic manuscripts from Qumran. As can be expected,
passages that are essentially rewritten Bible display the language of the pas
sages they expand. Forms of syntax tending toward Mishnaic Hebrew are ab
sent. 4Q219 (Jubd) does exhibit some Qumran Hebrew forms; but the syntax
remains "biblical" throughout.^16 This manuscript is therefore very similar in
orthography to the Temple Scroll. Peculiar here is the form -wh for third sin
gular masculine pronominal, objective, and possessive suffix. Some similar
forms are also found in 4Q221 (Jubf).^17
The Temple Scroll manuscripts are written in what is generally termed
the Qumran writing system,^18 although it almost consistently makes use of the
forms hw' and hy' that seem to indicate composition in Masoretic Hebrew.^19
Here, however, there is extensive architectural and cultic vocabulary that evi
dences the early development of words known to us in Mishnaic Hebrew, as
well as a number of uses of the verb "to be" in the future use as a helping verb
for future tense. Here also, the text betrays the vocabulary and style of the bib
lical material that has been rewritten to create a new composition.^20
4Q579), DJD 25 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 85-114; 11Q20 in F. Garcia Martinez, E. J. C.
Tigchelaar, and A. S. van der Woude, Qumran Caveu.II (11Q2-18,11Q20-31), DJD 23 (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1998), 357-409; 11Q21 in DJD 23:411-14; cf. S. White, DJD 13:319-33, for the possi
bility that 40365a may be a manuscript of the Temple Scroll. In our view this is part of a
composition that served as a source for the Temple Scroll.
- VanderKam, in EDSS, 1:437. On meduqdaq, see L. H. Schiffman, The Halakhah at
Qumran, SJLA 16 (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 32-33. - E.g., 4Q216 in DJD 13:2.
- DJD 13:40-41.
- DJD 13:64-65.
- E. Tov, "The Orthography and Language of the Hebrew Scrolls Found at Qumran
and the Origin of These Scrolls," Textus 13 (1986): 31-57. - Yadin, The Temple Scroll, 1:25-33.
- Yadin, The Temple Scroll, 1:33-39, 71-88. Cf. L. H. Schiffman, "The Architectural