Brit Damesek
4Q271(Df)
Parchment
Copied late first century
B.C.E.
Height 10.9 cm (4 1/4 in.),
length 9.3 cm (3 5/8 in.)
Courtesy of the Israel
Antiquities Authority (1)
The Damascus
Document is a collection of rules and instructions reflecting the practices of
a sectarian community. It includes two elements. The first is an admonition
that implores the congregation to remain faithful to the covenant of those who
retreated from Judea to the "Land of Damascus." The second lists
statutes dealing with vows and oaths, the tribunal, witnesses and judges,
purification of water, Sabbath laws, and ritual cleanliness. The right-hand
margin is incomplete. The left-hand margin was sewn to another piece of
parchment, as evidenced by the remaining stitches.
In 1896, noted
Talmud scholar and educator Solomon Schechter discovered sectarian compositions
which later were found to be medieval versions of the Damascus Document. Schechter's
find in a synagogue storeroom near Cairo, almost fifty years before the Qumran
discoveries, may be regarded as the true starting point of modern scroll
research.
References
Baumgarten,
J. "The Laws of the Damascus Document in Current Research." In The
Damascus Document Reconsidered. Edited by M. Broshi. Jerusalem, 1992. Written
by Baltimore Hebrew University scholar Joseph Baumgarten, this 1992 imprint
includes an analysis of the Damascus Document and its relation to Jewish Law,
or halakhah.
Rabin,
C. The Zadokite Documents. Oxford, 1958.
Schechter,
S. Fragments of a Zadokite Work: Documents of Jewish Sectaries, vol. 1.
Cambridge, England, 1910.
English
Translation of Damascus Document (Brit Damesek)
4Q271(Df)
Courtesy of the Israel
Antiquities Authority (1)
...with money...
...[his means did not] suffice to [return it to him] and
the year [for redemption approaches?]...
...and may God release him? from his sins. Let not [ ] in
one, for
it is an abomination....And concerning what he said (Lev.
25:14), ["When you sell
anything to or buy anything from] your neighbor, you shall
not defraud one another," this is the expli[cation...
...] everything that he knows that is found...
...and he knows that he is wronging him, whether it
concerns man or beast. And if
[a man gives his daughter to another ma]n, let him disclose
all her blemishes to him, lest he bring upon himself the judgement
[of the curse which is said (Deut. 27:18)] (of the one) that
"makes the blind to wander out of the way." Moreover, he should not
give her to one unfit for her, for
[that is Kila'yim, (plowing with) o]x and ass and wearing
wool and linen together. Let no man bring
[a woman into the holy] who has had sexual experience,
whether she had such experience
[in the home] of her father or as a widow who had
intercourse after she was widowed. And any woman
[upon whom] there is a bad name in her maidenhood in her
father's home, let no man take her, except
[upon examination] by reliable [women] who have clear
knowledge, by command of the Supervisor over
[the Many. After]ward he may take her, and when he takes
her he shall act in accordance with the law ...and he shall not tell...
[ ] L [ ]
Transcription
and translation by J. Baumgarten