CHAPTER SEVEN

THE HIGH PRIEST, THE BREASTPIECE AND THE URIM AND THUMMIM AT QUMRAN

Besides 1QSb 4:24-28 there are a significant number of other texts in the Dead Sea Scroll library which reveal a particular interest in the Urim and Thummim (UT). Several have already received much discussion (lQ29 + 4Q376, 4Q175), two have only recently been published (4Q392 frag. 1 and 4Q408) and as a whole their signifi• cance for Qumran theology has been underestimated. Because the UT, and the breastpiece of judgement to which they are related in Exodus 28, will figure prominently in our study of the Songs if the Sabbath Sacrifice in chapter 11 they are examined at this juncture in their own right. The three best known references to the UT are all, for one rea• son or another, allusive. 4QpIsad and Tongues of Fire (4Q376 + 1Q29) are fragmentary and therefore difficult to interpret. In 4Ql 75 the biblical reference to the UT in Deuteronomy 33:8 is cited with• out obvious comment in a Testimonia of biblical texts. Interpretation of these texts is compounded by the fact that there is still much scholarly uncertainty about the precise nature of the UT. In par• ticular, it has been hard to determine what relationship they have to the breastpiece and the precious stones prescribed for in Exodus 28: 15-30 and the precious stones placed on the high priest's shoulders in Exodus 28:6-14. Are the stones the UT and if so how were they consulted for God's judgements (Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6, 14:41)?1 Or, did the breastpiece of judgement simply contain the UT as one would carry pebbles in a bag for by psephomancy?2 Whatever the biblical understanding(s) of the UT one aspect of this mysterious channel of divine revelation which appears consist-

I Post-exilic Israel was itself evidendy uncertain how to use the UT (Ezra 2:63; Neh 7:65). 2 The possibilities have been thoroughly reviewed by Dam 1993, whose own con• clusions should be balanced by the studies of Horowitz and Hurowitz 1992 and Kitz 1997. THE HIGH PRIESTS' BREASTPIECE AND THE URIM AND THUMMIM 223 ently in the later, extra-biblical material is the giving of light. What• ever the etymology, later interpreters derived the word I:l"'~ from the root ,,~ "light" (and the I:l'an was similarly related to the root I:ln "be complete, finished, whole or perfect"). Thus, for example, the of Ezra 2:63 translates the Urim and Thummim of the Hebrew with the expression 'to'i~

The Light-Giving Stones and the Tongues of Fire (10..29 + 4QJ76)

We saw in our discussion of 1QSb 4 how in Aristeas 97 there is described the breastpiece, "called the 'oracle,' to which are attached 'twelve stones' of different kinds, set in gold, giving the names of the patriarchs in what was the original order, each stone flashing its own natural distinctive colour."3 A fuller explanation of the operation of this "oracle" is given by in his Jewish Antiquities 3:215-17:

Well, of those stones which ... the high priest wore upon his shoul• ders-they were sardonyxes, and I deem it superfluous to indicate the nature of jewels familiar to all-it came about, whenever God assisted at the sacred ceremonies, that the one that was buckled on the right shoulder began to shine, a light glancing from it, visible to the most distant, of which the stone had before betrayed no trance. That alone should marvel enough for such as have not cultivated a superior wis• dom to disparage all religious things; but I have yet a greater marvel to record. By means of the twelve stones, which the high priest wore upon his breast stitched into the essen (EO"0"11V), God fore showed victory to those on the eve of battle. For so brilliant a light flashed out from them before the army was yet in motion, that it was evident to the whole host that God had come to their aid. Hence it is that those

3 This tradition is also attested in Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities where each of the stones is engraved with eyes out through which light can stream (26:9, cf. 26: 13, 15). Compare, perhaps, Zech 3:9 where the high priest is given a stone with four• teen eyes. For an identification of this stone with the breastpiece see VanderKam 1991.