Aharon Shemeshmeans a good enough reason to reconstruct 4Q256 according to it. "Thirty sta
dia" is a well-known unit used in Roman Hellenistic culture as a standard
measurement for the outer borders of a town. Thus we read in m. Bava
Qamma 7:7 "They may not set snares for pigeons unless it be thirty stadia from
an inhabited place" (CH CPPlVP 3WH p pim DTI p DX N^N tm,!7).
The Persian equivalent to thirty stadia is the persanga, which is mentioned a
few times in the Babylonian Talmud in similar contexts. Thus, for example,
while discussing the prayer one should say when going on a journey, the Tal
mud (b. Berakhot 30a) asks: "when should he pray it?" R. Yaakov the son of
Hisdah says: "when he is already on the road — persanga!'^12 Line 6,1 suggest,
ought to be read in line with the previous law of line 5. The first states that one
is allowed to walk an animal 2,000 cubits, and the second decrees that in other
circumstances (which were specified in the missing texts) one is allowed "[to
walk on the Sabbath day of h]oliness thirty stadia" (Pip [D3P DIP "J^1 ?'']
on nnzn^p). we should not be surprised that the scroll distinguishes be
tween different situations with regard to the allowed walking distance, as this
is exactly what we find in the Damascus Document. While CD 11:5 allows graz
ing animals in a distance of 2,000 cubits, CD 10:21 states that a man by himself
should not proceed more than 1,000 cubits.^13
It is clear by now that the legal section of frg. 7 is homogeneous in that
all its details are concerned with the Sabbath. This observation actually pre
sents us with the key to understanding frg. 7's structure in general and the
meaning of its second unit (mentioning the yahad) in particular. To recall,
the last part of our passage (which deals with the story of the Garden of
Eden and the laws of impurity after childbirth) parallels Jub 3. Is it surpris
ing that the subject of chap. 2 is the Shabbat, just like in our document?! In
what follows I hope to establish that 4Q265 is a rewritten version of Jubilees,
as evident from the structure of frg. 7. As a result, the connection between
other fragments of the scroll may also be discerned.
Jubilees tells the story of creation retrospectively from the standpoint
of the Shabbat. "And the angel of the presence spoke to Moses according to
the word of the Lord, saying: Write the complete history of the creation, how
in six days the Lord God finished all His works and all that He created, and
kept Sabbath on the seventh day and hallowed it for all ages" (2:1). This is to
emphasize the importance of the Shabbat as the ultimate goal of the cre
ation. Then in vv. 2-15, God's deeds of the six days are described followed by
- Cf. b. Berakhot 16a.
- For this see L. H. Schiffman, Halakhah at Qumran (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 91-98.