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'?':JOO'? for Michael Knibb THE LAWS OF THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT AND4QMMT* CHARLOTTE HEMPEL Lucy Cavendish College- University qf Cambridge '?':JOO'? For Michael Knibb Introduction In the light of the recent publication of the Cave 4 manuscripts of the Damascus Document, the balance of admonitory material vis-a­ vis Laws has changed considerably in favour of its legal components. Whereas the first hundred years or so of research on the Damascus Document have focused primarily, though not exclusively, on the Admonition it is foreseeable that the next centenary celebration will look back on a substantial increase of studies dealing with the legal part of the document. In this paper I will attempt a preliminary comparative study of the Laws of the Damascus Document and the halakhic portion of 4QMMT, a question that has recently been ad­ dressed by Lawrence Schiffman in a paper entitled "The Place of 4QMMT in the Corpus of Qumran Manuscripts" and, more briefly, by Philip Callaway. 1 Before addressing the particular issues at stake let me briefly out­ line where I am approaching this question from. In a recent mono­ graph on the Laws of the Damascus Document I have proposed a • I would like to thank the organizers of this symposium for their kind invitation and generous hospitality during my visit. I would further like to thank the partici­ pants for their comments in the discussion of my paper from which I benefitted gready. I am especially grateful to Prof. Joseph M. Baumgarten for a number of erudite suggestions which he generously shared with me on reading the penultimate version of this paper. 1 Cf. L. H. Schiffman, "The Place of 4QMMT in the Corpus of Qumran Manuscripts," Reading 4Q.MMT New Perspectives on Qymran Law and History (ed. J. Kampen and M. J. Bernstein; SBLSym 2; Georgia: Scholars Press, 1996) 81-98, esp. 90-94, and P. R. Callaway, "4QMMT and Recent Hypotheses on the Origin of the Qumran Community," Mogilany 1993. Papers on the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Z. J. Kapera; Qumranica Mogilanensia 13; Krakow: Enigma, 1996) 15-29, esp. 26. See also J. Strugnell, "MMT: Second Thoughts on a Forthcoming Edition," The Community qf the Renewed Covenant. The Notre Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. E. Ulrich and J. C. VanderKam; Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994) 57-73, 68. 70 CHARLOTTE HEMPEL source- and redaction-critical analysis of this COIpUS.2 In the wake of my source-critical work on the Laws I have undertaken a number of comparative studies to which this paper may now be added.3 I have come to the view that since the Laws of the Damascus Document comprise a disparate collection of material some of its components may be fruitfully compared with a collection such as that preserved in the Community Rule, whereas others have a great deal more in common with a work such as 4QOrdinancesa or the halakhic part of 4QMMT. Apart from a number of miscellaneous traditions and traces of redactional activity I distinguish two main literary strata in the Laws of the Damascus Document: a stratum of halakha and a stratum of community organization. I am well aware that some are uncomfort­ able with the use of the term "halakha" in the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls.4 I retain the terminology because it expresses the dis­ tinction I am trying to make very well. The alternative of speaking simply of "laws" with lower case "1" seems unsatisfactory to me be­ cause that term is customarily used with upper case "L" to refer to the part of the Damascus Document that is distinguished from the Admonition. 4QMMT and Communal Legislation in D Turning now to the specific question at hand it seems that when it comes to establishing the relationship between the Laws of D and 4QMMT we can safely exclude the communal legislation stratum. There is nothing in MMT that refers to matters pertaining to the or­ ganization and authority structure of a particular community.5 By 2 C. Hempel, The Laws if the Damascus Document. Sources, Traditions and Redaction (STDJ 29; Leiden: Brill, 1998). 3 Cf. C. Hempel, "The Earthly Essene Nucleus of I QSa," DSD 3 (1996) 253-67; eadem, "The Penal Code Reconsidered," Legal Texts and Legal Issues. Proceedings if the Second Meeting if the International Organization for Qymran Studies, Cambridge, 1995 Published in Honour ifJoseph M. Baumgarten (ed. M. J. Bernstein, F. Garcia Martinez and J. Kampen; STDJ 23; Leiden: Brill, 1997) 337-48; and eadem, "4QOrda (4QI59) and the Laws of the Damascus Document," Proceedings if the International Congress if the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fifty rears after Their Discovery, Jerusalem, July 1997 Gerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, forthcoming). 4 Cf. Strugnell, "Second Thoughts," 65-66; also idem, "More on Wives and Marriage in the Dead Sea Scrolls: (4Q416 2 ii [Cf. 1 Thess 4:4] and 4QMMT§B)," RevQ 17 (1996) 537-47, esp. 541, n. 7. Prof. Shemaryahu Talmon has expressed similar reservations in a discussion at the Hebrew University's Orion Center in April 1996. 5 This has frequently been noted; cf. Y. Sussman, "The History of the Halakhah and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Preliminary Talmudic Observations on Miqeat Ma'ase ha-.
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