The Community
Rule
Serekh ha-Yahad
4Q258 (Sd)
Parchment
Copied late first century B.C.E.Äearly first century C.E.
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority (7)
Originally known
as The Manual of Discipline, the Community Rule contains a set of regulations
ordering the life of the members of the "yahad," the group within the
Judean Desert sect who chose to live communally and whose members accepted
strict rules of conduct. This fragment cites the admonitions and punishments to
be imposed on violators of the rules, the method of joining the group, the
relations between the members, their way of life, and their beliefs. The sect
divided humanity between the righteous and the wicked and asserted that human
nature and everything that happens in the world are irrevocably predestined.
The scroll ends with songs of praise to God.
A complete copy
of the scroll, eleven columns in length, was found in Cave 1. Ten fragmentary
copies were recovered in Cave 4, and a small section was found in Cave 5. The
large number of manuscript copies attests to the importance of this text for
the sect. This particular fragment is the longest of the versions of this text
found in Cave 4.
Reference
Qimron,
E. "A Preliminary Publication of 4QSd Columns VII-VIII" (in Hebrew).
Tarbiz 60 (1991):435-37.
English
Translation of The Community Rule
And according to
his insight he shall admit him. In this way both his love and his hatred. No
man shall argue or quarrel with the men of perdition. He shall keep his council
in secrecy in the midst of the men of deceit and admonish with knowledge, truth
and righteous commandment those of chosen conduct, each according to his
spiritual quality and according to the norm of time. He shall guide them with
knowledge and instruct them in the mysteries of wonder and truth in the midst
of the members of the community, so that they shall behave decently with one
another in all that has been revealed to them. That is the time for studying
the Torah (lit. clearing the way) in the wilderness. He shall instruct them to
do all that is required at that time, and to separate from all those who have
not turned aside from all deceit.
These are the
norms of conduct for the Master in those times with respect to his loving and
to his everlasting hating of the men of perdition in a spirit of secrecy. He
shall leave to them property and wealth and earnings like a slave to his lord,
(showing) humility before the one who rules over him. He shall be zealous
concerning the Law and be prepared for the Day of Revenge.
He shall perform
the will [of God] in all his deeds and in all strength as He has commanded. He
shall freely delight in all that befalls him, and shall desire nothing except
God's will...
Transcription
and translation by E. Qimron.