Law, Literature, and Society in Legal Texts from Qumran (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah)

Reflecting the increasing recognition of the importance of legal texts and issues in early Judaism, the essays in this collection examine halakhic and rule texts found at Qumran in light of the latest scholarship on text production, social organization, and material culture in early Judaism. The contributors present new interpretations of long-lived topics, such as the sobriquet "seekers of the smooth things," the Treatise of the Two Spirits, and 4QMMT, and take up new approaches to purity issues, the role of the maśkil, and the Temple Scroll. The volume exemplifies the range of ways in which the Qumran legal texts help illuminate early Jewish culture as a whole. Contents 6 Introduction and Acknowledgements 8 Abbreviations 17 Second Temple Jewish Law in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Widening the Paradigm 18 Were Scrolls Susceptible to Impurity? The View from Qumran 44 A New Understanding of the Sobriquet דורשי החלקות : Why Qumranites Rejected Pharisaic Traditions 82 4QMMT: A Letter to (not from) the Yaḥad 116 The Place of the “Treatise of the Two Spirits” (1QS 3:13–4:26) within the Literary Development of the Community Rule 144 The Literary Development of the “Treatise of the Two Spirits” as Dependent on Instruction and the Hodayot 170 From Ink Traces to Ideology: A Reassessment of 4Q256 (4QSerekh ha-Yaḥadb) Frags. 5a–b and 1QS 6:16–17 202 Yaḥad, Maśkil, Priests and Angels—Their Relation in the Community Rule (1QS) 224 The Reworking of Ezekiel’s Temple Vision in the Temple Scroll 247 The Levites, the Royal Council, and the Relationship between Chronicles and the Temple Scroll 270 Index of Ancient Sources 288 Index of Modern Authors 303 "Reflecting the increasing recognition of the importance of legal texts and issues in early Judaism, the essays in this collection examine halakhic and rule texts found at Qumran in light of the latest scholarship on text production, social organization, and material culture in early Judaism. The contributors present new interpretations of long-lived topics, such as the sobriquet "seekers of the smooth things," the Treatise of the Two Spirits, and 4QMMT, and take up new approaches to purity issues, the role of the maśkil, and the Temple Scroll. The volume exemplifies the range of ways in which the Qumran legal texts help illuminate early Jewish culture as a whole"-- Provided by publisher