Aharon Shemesh
- For a preliminary suggestion to explain the collection of laws in frg. 7, see M. Kister,
"Lexical and Linguistic Gleaning from the Dead Sea Scrolls," Leshoneneu 67 (2007): 41, and
note 78. - See my article "4Q251: Midrash Mishpatim" DSD 12 (2005): 280-302.
- Baumgarten reads DIKI.
On the day of [
[ da]y of the Shabbat and not [
[Le]t no man of the seed of Aaron
sprinkle w[ater for purification
[ ] s [ ] m big will fast on the day [
[a]n [a]nimal may walk two thousand
cubits
sectarian Penal Code and a partial description of the procedure for accept
ing new members to the community. Only a few words survived of frg. 5,
which most probably has to do with agriculture laws, and frg. 6 contains a
series of Shabbat laws similar in content and phraseology to the Damascus
Document. The fragmentary condition of the scroll's remains is indeed an
unfortunate situation, but we should be careful not to blame its author for
our inability to grasp the overall sequence and content of the scroll. As in
many other cases, we have no way to estimate what the original length of the
composition was, how much has come to us, and how much has been lost.
Therefore, it is very difficult to speculate about the original contexts of the
survived fragments.
With these facts in mind, we are coming back to frg. 7, which presents
the modern scholar with a real challenge. Can we solve this conundrum:
Reveal the background behind it and explain its content and the sequence
of its details?^3 My research experience of the last years teaches me that it's
worth a try.^4
4Q265, Fragment 7
Here is the text in his original Hebrew and an English translation based on
Baumgarten's edition, though I omitted his reconstructions and made some
necessary changes. As will be explained below, some of Baumgarten's recon
structions worsen the situation and make it even harder to grasp the pas
sage's overall structure.
On the day of [ ]H QV3 "?[ ] 1
[ da]y of the Shabbat and not [ JS^1 ?! nwn D[V ] 2
[Le]t no man of the seed of Aaron HI] ,]i3 1T1HK SHtfi B^K V "?[K] 3
sprinkle w[ater for purification