nora
(Nora)
#1
Jubilees, Qumran, and the Essenes
to be new converts. These are probably the sons and daughters of the com
munity members.
There are several indications that 4Q502 is related to the yahad. The
adverb yahad is mentioned at least four times in this very fragmented text.
Furthermore, several terms are particularly characteristic of other docu
ments of the yahad, namely, the Community Rule, the pesherim, and the
Hodayot: "holy of holies," "the law of God," "daughter of truth" (or "son/
men of truth" in other texts), and teu'dah (testimony, appointed times, stip
ulation). While none of these points suffices to conclude that 4Q502 origi
nated in the yahad, taken together I think they demonstrate that this is more
than probable. This may serve as a further argument against the supposed
celibacy of the yahad.
Due to all these discrepancies I find it impossible to argue that the
Qumran sects and the Essenes are the same or that the yahad and the Da
mascus Covenant are groups within the larger (and ultimately, celibate)
Essene movement. But as I shall argue below, it is hard to deny that there is a
certain, more complex relationship between them.
IV. Social and Historical Relationship
Jubilees' ideology is not sectarian but rather aims to take the lead and reform
Judaism rather than withdraw from the rest of society. Its group therefore
cannot be identified with the Qumran sects. Nonetheless, Jubilees has close
affinities with several Qumranic texts, mainly the Temple Scroll and MMT.
Jubilees shares with the Temple Scroll and MMT several sacrificial
laws,^47 and laws pertaining to priestly offerings. Similar to the Temple Scroll,
Jubilees orders that a he-goat (s'eir) for atonement should be sacrificed first,
in contrast to the plain text of Num 28-29 and rabbinic halakah.^48 Jubilees
seems to share the Temple Scroll's celebration of the Festival of Weeks
(firstfruits of wheat) on the fifteenth of the third month,^49 as well as the fes
tivals of the firstfruits of new wine and oil.^50 Both Jubilees and MMT order
47. VanderKam, "The Temple Scroll and the Book of Jubilees."
48. Jub 7:4; Temple Scroll 14:10-12; 23:11; 26:5-27:4; Y. Yadin, The Temple Scroll (Jerusa
lem: Israel Exploration Society and the Shrine of the Book, 1977), 1:103,116-17.
49. Jub 15:1; 16:13; Temple Scroll 18:10-16 (the rabbis celebrated it on the sixth of that
month).
50. Temple Scroll 19:11-14; 21:12-16. Admittedly, Jub 7:36 mentions only the offerings
of the first wine and oil. Both the Temple Scroll and Jubilees interpret these offerings as per-
