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WEALTH in the DAMASCUS DOCUMENT Tradmon 2.1

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WEALTH in the DAMASCUS DOCUMENT Tradmon 2.1 CHAPTER TWO WEALTH IN THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT TRADmON 2.1 Introduction The Damascus Document frequently refers to wealth in contexts illustrative of communal history, relations and ideals. In references suggestive of histori­ cal events, the community behind the text identifies itself as "the poor ones of the flock" over against the princes of Judah who commit treason with "wick­ ed wealth." Wealth is regulated as a means of maintaining communal rela­ tions and communal boundaries, with particular emphasis on commercial and sacrificial transactions and less frequent mention of family law (e.g., dowry, inheritance, support for widows and orphans). In addition, the community idealizes these relations and thereby divulges its rationales through biblical allusions to the wilderness exilic community of Israel, the ideal sanctuary of the wilderness (Exodus-Deuteronomy) and of the eschaton(Ezekiel), covenant fidelity, jubilee legislation, and proverbial wisdom about the nature of wealth. With the publication of the Cave 4 Damascus Document manuscripts by Joseph M. Baumgarten, we are now in a position to explore all of the evi­ dence for the disposition of wealth as admonished and legislated in this tex­ tual tradition. I The number of manuscripts discovered would normally allow for some analysis of the diachronic development of the legislation about wealth, but because the wealth passages do not vary appreciably from one an­ other, this line of inquiry yields little information. While the Cave 4 versions do not furnish significant variants, they do provide material additional to the Cairo versions in which the disposition of wealth is discussed. 2.2 Textual Evidence The Damascus Document survives in two medieval manuscripts found in the I J. M. Baumgarten, Qumran Cave 4.XIlI: The Damascus Document (4Q266-273) (D1O 18; Oxford: Clarendon, 1996). The volume includes a concordance for the 4QD materials, with ref­ erences to parallel passages in the Cairo Damascus Document and in the Serelf; manuscripts (5.1. Pfann, "Concordance," 199-236). E. 1. C. Tigchelaar and H. Stegemann have placed several fragments that were unidentified in Baumgarten's edition. For 4QDd• e, see Tigchelaar, "More Identifications of Scraps and Overlaps," RevQ 19 (1999) 67-8. For 4QDd, see Stegemann, "269. 4QDamascus Documentd frgs. 10, 11 (Re-edition), IS, 16," in Qumran Cave 4.XXVI: Cryptic Texts and Miscellanea. Part I (ed. Pfann et al.; D10 36; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2(00) 201- 211, pI. IX, and "More Identified Fragments of 4Qd (4Q269}," RevQ 18 (1998) 497-509. 26 CHAPTER TWO Cairo Genizah and in ten manuscripts from the Qumran caves. The number of copies discovered at Qumran renders this text one of the most heavily at­ tested sectarian compositions in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus.2 Where the copies from the Qumran caves parallel the less fragmentary medieval exem­ plars, they demonstrate few significant textual variants, and where the Qum­ ran copies preserve parallel passages, they are, in the judgment of Baumgar­ ten, fairly compatible with each other. 3 Before examining closely the particular sections of the document that treat the disposition of wealth, it will be useful to have a general sense of the tex­ tual witnesses and their development over time. 2.2.1 Manuscripts The first copies of the Damascus Document were discovered in a synagogue storeroom in Cairo at the end of the nineteenth century. These were pub­ lished by Solomon Schechter as "Fragments of a Zadokite Work" in 1910.4 2 Compare to twelve or possibly thirteen copies of the Rule of the Community (1QS, 4Qsa.j , 5Q 11; see also 5Q 13), nine copies of Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (4QShirShabba.h, 11 QShir­ Shabb), seven copies of the War Scroll (1QM, 4QMa•f , and four other related works) and six copies of the Halakhic Letter (4QMMp·f). 3 Baumgarten, DJD 18, 6-7. 4 Schechter, Documents of Jewish Sectaries, vol. I, Fragments of a Zadokite Work (LBS; New York: KTAV, 1970; original Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910). Schechter includes photographs of only two pages of CD, one from CD-A (page I), and one from CD-B (page XX). The full set of photographs was published by S. Zeitlin, The Zadokite Fragments. Facsimile of the Manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah Collection in the Possession of the University Library, Cambridge, England (JQRMS 1; Philadelphia: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, 1952) and by M. Broshi, ed., The Damascus Document Reconsidered (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and The Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, 1992). A critical edition of the manuscripts was published by L. Rost, Die Damaskusschrift (KIT 167; Berlin: Waiter de Gruyter, 1933) and by C. Rabin, The Zadokite Documents: I. The Admonition; II. The Laws, Edited with a Translation (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954; 2d rev. ed., 1958). See also S. A. White, "A Comparison of the 'A' and 'B' Manuscripts of the Damascus Document," RevQ 48 (1987) 537-53; she argues that the two manuscripts were part of the same document. Vocalized Hebrew texts were published by A. M. Habermann, "The Documents of the Damascus Covenanters," in Megilloth Midbar Yehuda: The Scrolls from the Judean Desert (Jerusalem: Machbaroth Lesifruth, 1959; includes a concordance) 71-88, and by E. Lohse, Die Texte aus Qumran: Hebriiisch und Deutsch (Munich: K6sel, 1981; original 1964). For recent translations into English, see F. Garcfa Martfnez, "2. The Damascus Document, A. Copies from the Genizah," in DSST, 33-47; J. M. Baumgarten and D. R. Schwartz, "Damascus Document (CD)," in DSSHAG, 2.4-57; G. Vermes, "The Damascus Rule (CD)," in DSSE, 81-99; and Rabin, Zadokite Documents. M. A. Knibb includes a translation of and commentary on the Damascus Document in his The Qumran Community (CCWJCW 2; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) 13-76; in his translation of the text, he presents the parallel portions of pages VII-VIII and XIX synoptical­ ly. P. R. Davies includes the Hebrew text with his translation in The Damascus Covenant: An In­ terpretation of the "Damascus Document" (JSOTSup 25; Sheffield: JSOT, 1982) 232-67. M. O. Wise, M. Abegg, Jr., and E. M. Cook have published a translation of the Damascus Document that conflates the versional evidence in "The Damascus Document (Genizah A+B, .
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