4Q265 and the Authoritative Status of Jubilees at Qumran
is also the subject of the laws at the beginning of lines 3 and 5. The first (1.3)
rules that the priests will not sprinkle the purification water on that day. As
noted by Baumgarten, the same halakah appears in 4Q274 (4QTohorot A)^9
as follows: 'jrarcn vbv ,?^^•, DXI na»n[ m -nap "ias j"o narca r
I13tPn QVa. The halakah in line 5 is also known from another place, that
is, CD 11:5: D'S^K DK '3 rp»» fin nninV nanan -ins i"?' "PS
naS3, which serves Baumgarten for its reconstruction: ITV^1? fin "fpniian]
HBK WSh8, "f?' nana p] n [» mm^1 ?. As the subject of frg. 6 is also the laws
of the Shabbat, it is most plausible that our fragment (7) is indeed its direct
continuation. Apparently, 4Q265 had a substantial section dealing with
Shabbat laws.
In light of the above, I find Baumgarten's suggestions for the recon
struction of lines 4 and 6 not satisfying: in my opinion, they also ought to do
with Shabbat laws. Baumgarten read and reconstructed line 4 as dealing with
QniB'an UV (the Day of Atonement): [CTISan] DV3 D1X1 *?m
IDfaa' S^1 ?! ism' K*?!] ("[let them not bathe nor laun]der [on the] great
[d]ay and fast, on the Day [of Atonement]"). I submit that the word D1X1
mentioned in this law is not a noun that describes the great day; rather it
should be read as a verb, D1X\^10 The law is not concerning the Day of Atone
ment, but rather, like the surrounding injunctions, its subject is the Shabbat.
Though I don't yet have a full reconstruction to offer, there is no doubt in my
mind that the law's intent is to prohibit fasting on Shabbat. Fasting on the
Shabbat is explicitly prohibited by Jub 5o:i2-i3.u
Similarly I decline to accept Baumgarten's reconstruction for lines 5-6:
TIN -IttO VaSV 01 D'WTW Bnpta^1? anp n«n ("[Let no man eat
meat of an ox or lamb near the Tejmple by a distance of thirty stadia"). This
reconstruction is based on Temple Scroll 52:16-17, where the distance of "thirty
stadia" is mentioned in connection with eating nonsacrificial meat in the tem
ple surroundings: pirn natoKin nanywa ma na w> iws minon
01 D'tPrVtP tPTpaa ("and every pure animal in which there is a blemish you
may eat it at your gates (cities) far from my Temple at a radius of thirty sta
dia"). Though this quotation from the Temple Scroll is indeed the only other
place in the scrolls where the term "thirty stadia" is mentioned, this is by no
9- 4Q274. 2,1,1 (DID 35.103)-
10. The first letter is more likely to be' than 1, as its leg is clearly shorter than that of
the third letter in the word. A possible reconstruction may be: DV3 UVf "?VT1 Q [X JDp OK
[nawn].
11. On fasting on the Shabbat in rabbinic tradition, see Y. D. Gilat, Studies in the De
velopment of the Halakhah (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1992), 107-22.
