4Q265 and the Authoritative Status of Jubilees at Qumran[ ]holy thirty stadia. Let n[o]
[W]hen there will be in the council of
the Community fif[teen
[The p]rophets. The council of the
Community is established
Pleasing and a sweet odour to atone
for the l[a]nd
Will perish in the judgments of the
periods of iniquity.
On the first week
[until] he was brought to the Garden
of Eden and a bone
did she have until she was brought to
hi[m]
[for] the Garden of Eden is sacred and
every young shoot which is in its
midst is a consecrate thing
(she) will be impure for seven days as
in the days of her menstruation
(the blood) of her purity. And if she
will bear a female she shall be impure
[shall remain]n in the blood of her
purity. [No] consecrate thing [shall
she touch].
The fragment may be divided into four parts. The first unit, consisting of lines
1 -6, contains the remains of some halakic rulings. They are phrased in the ab
stract style characteristic of the Damascus Document laws. The second unit,
lines 7-10, has a clear sectarian nature. It mentions the "council of the Com
munity" twice: in line 7 and in line 8, and in line 10 there appears the phrase
"periods of iniquity," which is typical of the sectarian vocabulary. The third
part (11. 11-14) is a retelling of the Genesis story of the creation of Eve from
Adam's rib and God's placing them in paradise. The fourth part (11. 15-17) is
again halakic in nature, dealing with the laws of impurity after childbirth.
Now, the easiest parts to identify as to background are parts 3 and 4.
Baumgarten had already pointed out that these two subjects — the story of
- Baumgarten reads HDD1.