Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

Eyal Regev

Document.^29 Nonetheless, there is only a single and quite insignificant oc­

currence of "Elders" in the Damascus Document.^30 Elders are mentioned

only once in the Community Rule,^31 where they are lower in hierarchy than

priests, and have no special authority within the yahad, which, unlike the

Essenes, has a democratic and semi-egalitarian social structure with no gov­

erning individual leader. Josephus's assertion that the Essenes "obey their el­

ders and the majority"^32 appears to reflect a combination of CD's governing

overseers and priests and the yahad's assembly of the rabbim ("many").

In two cases, what appears to be a parallel between Josephus's Essenes

and the scrolls actually conceals a discrepancy. In their gradual admission of

novices into the sect, the Essenes exclude novices from the "purer water for

purification" (which obviously refers to ritual baths) for one year before the

novices prove their temperance in a probation period. During the subsequent

two years, novices are excluded from partaking in the common meals.^33 This

parallels lQS 6:13-23, where converts into the yahad are excluded from "the

purity of the many" in the first year, and from "the drink/liquids of the many"

(which probably also means purification rituals and common meals) in the

second. The Essene probation period is longer, and furthermore, their inclu­

sion in communal practices progresses in an inverse order: new Essene con­

verts are first permitted to participate in ritual baths, and only at a later stage

in communal meals, in contrast to the order of inclusion in the yahad.^34 More

generally, the Community Rule and the Damascus Document also mention a

much more lenient admission process compared to the Essenes, which

merely requires an oath, with no probation period.^35

29. CD 9:13-15; 13:15-16; 14:12-17.

30. CD 9:4.

31. lQS 6:8. Beall, Josephus' Description, 47, with bibliography, argued that this is a

point of resemblance.

32. Josephus, Jewish War 2.146.

33. Josephus, Jewish War 2.137-138. Beall, Josephus' Description, 73-74, translates

sumbidsis "common meals," whereas Thackeray (LCL edition, 377) translates "the meeting of

the community."

34. Beall, Josephus' Description, 74-75, emphasized the general parallelism of gradual

acceptance but understated the differences.

35. lQS 5:7-10; CD 15:6-10. The vow of the Essene novice is part of the lengthy admis­

sion process. J. Licht, The Rule Scroll: A Scroll from the Wilderness of Judaea, lQSiQSa iQSb;

Text, Introduction, and Commentary (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1965), 146-47,

noted that the Essene novice takes an oath at the completion of the admission into the

group, whereas converts to the yahad do so in the first stage of their admission process. Cf.

War 2:139-142; lQS 6:14-15; Beall, Josephus' Description, 77.