The
Community Rule is the name given to one of the documents found in the caves at
QumranQumran is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank, just next to the Israeli kibbutz of Kalia...
, and as such is one of the
Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea scrolls consist of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Qumran Wadi near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.The texts are of great...
.
The most complete manuscript was found in Cave 1, and is given the document reference name 1QS (which stands for : "Cave
1 /
Qumran / "
Serekh" = 'rule'). Numerous other fragments of this document, containing variant readings, were found in caves 4 and 5 (4QSa-j, 5Q11, 5Q13).
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The
Community Rule is the name given to one of the documents found in the caves at
QumranQumran is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank, just next to the Israeli kibbutz of Kalia...
, and as such is one of the
Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea scrolls consist of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Qumran Wadi near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.The texts are of great...
.
The most complete manuscript was found in Cave 1, and is given the document reference name 1QS (which stands for : "Cave
1 /
Qumran / "
Serekh" = 'rule'). Numerous other fragments of this document, containing variant readings, were found in caves 4 and 5 (4QSa-j, 5Q11, 5Q13). Two other documents, known as the
The Rule of the CongregationOne of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at the Qumran site in 1946 contained the three sectarian texts: The Community Rule, The Rule of the Congregation, and The Rule of the Blessing. The Rule of the Congregation and the Rule of the Blessing were at first overlooked by researchers and...
and
the Rule of the BlessingThe Rule of the Blessing is a very fragmentary text once thought to be part of the Dead Sea Scrolls book known as the Community Rule. It is added as one of two appendices following the book of the Community Rule, on one of the first seven scrolls discovered at the Qumran site...
, are found on the same scroll as 1Qs, and were originally thought to be part of the Community Rule, but are now considered separate texts that act as appendices.
There is some debate whether the community for which it legislates and describes is utopian or real and, if real, whether it refers to a community that may have been resident at the adjacent settlement of Qumran. A strong argument in favour of the real character of the document's legislation is the staged entrance procedure, within which the candidate only makes a provisional surrender of property (at the beginning of the last year of the novitiate, 1QS VI:20). Such provisional surrender of property is found in historically unrelated communitarian groups (e.g. the Society of Separatists at Zoar; the Hutterites of the eighteenth century) and suggests the reality of the community of property for which the document legislates and the development of the document's legislation through actual social experience of the practical difficulties of sharing property. The current majority opinion is that the document describes, together with the rest of the scrolls, the theology of a Jewish Essene
sectThe historical usage of the term sect in Christendom has had pejorative connotations, referring to a group or movement with heretical beliefs or practices that deviate from those of groups considered orthodox....
resident at Qumran.
Key Theological Themes
- Yahad, or 'Union' The belief in a direct link between the community and the angels in heaven.
- Determinism and Dualism Treatise on the two spirits. The righteous chosen ones of the group pitted against those not reckoned in God's covenant.
- Covenant On freely entering the community one swears the covenant before God, crosses over into the covenant, and joins the Yahad.
- Priestly primacy Priests preside and judge. Essential for quorum gatherings of the community.
- Community as Temple Righteousness and prayer replace the sacrificial cult
In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings , its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is...
of mainstream Judaism. Sacral status of meals.
- Zadokite affinities Aedificatory language. Military language. (compare 1QM & Leontopolis project
The Land of Onias is the name given in Hellenistic Egyptian, Jewish, and Roman sources to an area in Ancient Egypt's Nile delta where a large number of Jews settled. The Land of Onias, which included the city of Leontopolis, was located in the nome of Heliopolis...
).
- Knowledge The mystical Union results in sevenfold blessings of hidden heavenly knowledge for the members of the community.
- The Law of Moses To be absolutely followed, and studied, according to its correct interpretation as revealed to the community. The rule is full of often obscure scriptural allusions.
- Eschatalogical expectations Messianic expectations. Destruction of the wicked. cf 1En91.
External links