Dead Sea Scrolls: Sectarian Texts

Some of the most interesting documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls are those that describe the founding beliefs and rules of the community itself. These texts give us a window into what this community was all about, and there has been a good deal written about how we should place this community within Judaism on the basis of this evidence. Since they contain reasoning about how to observe the law, they also give us important evidence of debates withing Judaism at the time, and often shed light on similar debates in the New Testament or Rabbinic legal interpretation.

Community Rule is a document that outlines the basic beliefs, conditions for membership, and operational rules for the Qumran community. The memorable “Two Spirits” passage near its beginning lays down a strongly predestinarian understanding of God’s plan of salvation, involving a confrontation between the sons of light and the sons of wickedness, with the ultimate triumph of the good.

The fragment of the Community Rule which is here now (4Q258 columns 9-10) belongs to the hymnic material at the close of the document. It describes the commitment of the community member to the praise of God at different times of year.

A couple of details from this section stand out to me. The connection between covenant membership and personal devotion is striking: “At the entrance of day and night I will enter into the covenant of God, and with the exit of evening and morning I will say your statutes, and while they persist I will return my boundaries so as not to turn back.”

It is important to recognize that alongside this commitment to law-keeping, the Community had a stong emphasis on penitence. In this same section we read, “With his judgment I shall reprove myself according to my perversion, with my transgression before my eyes like an engraved statute.” Many Christians associate Jesus’ emphasis on penitence with the criticisms he received for being lax in rule-following (e.g., his disciples not washing their hands). Penitence is then opposed to a legalistic spirit. It may complicate this story to realize that in Jesus’ day, a strong emphasis on penitence was perfectly consistent with an emphasis on robust legal observance.

The Damascus Document seems to be a very similar type of literature to the Community Rule: it sets out beliefs and practices for a community. There are many overlaps with the Community Rule, and which came first is debated. The Damascus Document is actually known outside the Dead Sea Scrolls, since a copy survived in the Cairo Genizah – perhaps evidence of wide circulation.

The fragment here in DC (4Q271 fragment 5, column i) contains regulations for Sabbath observance. For example, one is not to remove an object from one’s house on the Sabbath, or mistreat servants or hired hands on the Sabbath. One theme in particular stands out: “One should not assist an animal to give birth on the the Sabbath, and if it should fall into a cistern or pit, one should not lift it out on the Sabbath… any living person who falls into a place of water or cistern one should not lift out by means of a ladder or rope or tool.”

This is quite a radical stance on exceptions to the Sabbath to save a life. In Matthew 12:11, Jesus says, “What person among you who has one sheep, if it should fall into a pit on the Sabbath, would not lay hold of it and raise it up?” In the context, Jesus’ act of healing on the Sabbath is controversial, but he introduces the example of rescuing an animal from a pit, arguing that healing a human life should be even more permissible. His argument assumes every person in his audience would grant the permissibility of saving an animal from a pit on the Sabbath. The Talmud dedicates a discussion to how to help such an animal by throwing cushions and blankets into the pit to allow the animal to climb out, or by feeding the animal in place so it may survive to be rescued the next day.b. Šabbat 128b The Talmud seems to agree with the view Jesus presumes in his audience, although it is stricter in practice – one should not lift the animal oneself, but look for a workaround. But the Damascus Document is strictest of all, holding one should simply not rescue the animal. Even for humans, who may be saved, use of climbing tools for the purpose is forbidden. A different document among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q265, does allow the use of garments to rescue a human from a pit – presumably the fact that they are not formal climbing tools makes a difference.

Though these rules may be characterized as strict, one should note that in this same context, the Damascus Document forbids the death penalty for Sabbath breaking, despite what one might expect from Exodus 3:14-15; 35:2. A violator is instead forbidden from the assembly for a period of seven years.

This document is extermely fragmentary, but it seems to describe some kind of procedure for the meeting of the community. There is a reference to elders, and the line “they shall ascend by genealogy” might relate to the tendency of the community to assign specific ranks to individuals for purposes of assemblies.