Lawrence H. Schiffman
priest who offers it. This prescription is based on Lev 7:8, which refers to a
private burnt offering ('olat 'ish). If the priest is to keep the hide, then the
animal must have been his personal contribution. If so, the author of the
Temple Scroll agreed with the Boethusians (or Sadducees) on this question.
Jubilees, as was shown above, took the opposite position, that of the Phari
sees, requiring that the offering come from public funds. Our two sources,
then, are in fundamental disagreement regarding the nature of the daily sac
rifice.
In many areas, there is substantial incongruity between these two
sources; that which is important to one source is simply not treated in the
other. Such a situation obtains in the sacrifice for the new month. Jub 31:1, 3
mentions the new moon in the context of Jacob's sacrifice at Bethel on the
new moon of the seventh month. Here, Jacob is depicted as telling the mem
bers of his household to purify themselves and get ready to travel to Bethel
where he will repay his debt to God (cf. Gen 35:2-4). This occurs on the new
moon of the seventh month, which is one of the four "new years" enumer
ated by the author of Jubilees. It is therefore impossible to know if the purifi
cation ritual described in v. 1 is intended for new moons or if it is connected
with the New Year festival of the seventh month.
Temple Scroll 14:2-8 details the offerings for the new moon. Here the
author has altered the language of the Pentateuch, rephrasing extensively the
commands of Num 28:11-15 and Num 15:1-13. Yadin explains that the author
used Num 15 to allow him to enumerate the cereal and drink offering for
each animal in turn, as opposed to mentioning all the cereal offerings first
and then all the drink offerings, as is done in Num 28.^46
Actually, the author was attracted to Num 15 for much more important
reasons. The amount of oil for the offerings is nowhere specified in Num 28,
only that for the libation of wine. The author used Num 15, in which the very
same animals appear with the same allocations of flour and wine, to deter
mine the amounts of oil since these are explicitly stated there. It was not the
desire to reorder the material that directed the author of the Temple Scroll to
this passage but rather the specification of the exact recipe for the oil of the
cereal offering. When he shifted to this passage, the author ended up with its
formulation and organization as well.
In any case, there is insufficient evidence on which to base any com
parison of the texts. Jubilees may refer to purification for the new moon and
the offering of sacrifices. The Temple Scroll presents a completely worked-
- Yadin, The Temple Scroll, 2:56-57.