Damascus Document

The caves at Qumran, in the area where the Damascus Document and other Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

The Damascus Document, also called the Zadokite Fragments, one of the works found in multiple fragmentary copies in the caves at Qumran, and as such is counted among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is unique among the Qumran sectarian documents in that it had been previously discovered in the late nineteenth century in Egypt.

The current majority view among scholars is that the scrolls are related to an Essene community based there around the first century B.C.E. Because it gives specific insights into the unique religious attitudes of its writers, the Damascus Document is considered one of the most important sources for understanding the ancient Essene movement. The document seems to have been written in stages between 175 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., when the Essene community at Qumran community at Qumran was abandoned.

The first section of the Damascus Document concerns the community's religious teachings. It stresses devotion to Israel's covenant with God, the hope of the coming of both a Messiah of Aaron and a Messiah of Israel, and a strict interpretation of Jewish law. It also speaks of a mystery Teacher of Righteousness and an unknown document known as Book of Meditation which the chief priest of the community were required to master. Various theories have emerged concerning the identity and roles of these two antagonists. The document predicts that the age of the Messiah would begin 40 years after the Teacher's death.

The document's second section contains a set of regulations concerning community life and discipline that gives a sense of the sect's way of life as they prepared themselves for the Messiah's coming. Its rules were very strict, requiring almost total separation from Gentiles, no carrying of medicines on the Sabbath,

History

The title of the document comes from numerous references within it to a community of the "new covenant" in Damascus. It is a matter of debate whether this is a literal reference to Damascus in Syria, a metaphorical references to a great pagan city (as "Babylon" is in the Book of Revelation), or possibly even Qumran itself. Damascus had supposedly been part of Israel under King David, and the Damascus Document expresses an apocalyptic hope of the restoration of a Davidic monarchy.

The noted Jewish scholar Rabbi Sholomon Schechter first discovered the document among discarded trash from the Cairo Geniza, publishing it under the title of the Zadokite Fragments in 1910. He assigned this name to the document on account of several reference to the Israelite priest Zadok, to whom the sect apparently looked as a model of faithfulness. Although the two copies Schecter worked from were medieval, he believed the original must have been ancient, from around the first century B.C.E. The discovery of several fragments of the document at Qumran in 1948 proved Schechter correct.

In contrast to the fragments found at Qumran, the CD documents are largely complete, and therefore are vital for reconstructing the text. Eight separate copies of the Damascus Document were kept in Qumran Cave 4 and an additional copy in Cave 5. These have been dated to the beginning of the Common Era, give or take several decades. Where the content of the Qumran fragments overlaps with Geniza manuscripts there is little variation between them.

Contents

The document prominently mentions a Teacher of Righteousness, whom some of the Qumran scrolls treat as a figure from their past, and others treat as a figure in their present, and still others as a figure of the future. The document describes the group among whom the it was created as having been leaderless for 20 years before the Teacher established his rule over the group. This too is a subject of much debate, but historians generally date the Teacher to circa 150 B.C.E., largely due to the fact that the document states that he arrived 390 years after the Babylonian Exile.

One of the scrolls of the Book of Isaiah found at Qumran. The Damascus Document is considerably more fragmentary.

The relationship between the Damascus Document and the Community Rule remains a matter of controversy, although the two documents clearly share a great deal of sectarian terminology.

The Geniza versions begin with an exhortation speaks of the origins of the Essene movement.

"The Community Rule" is this work's own title in one manuscript. It has also been called the "Manual of Discipline." The Community Rule describes a community similar to the Essenes as portrayed by historians such as Josephus and Philo. Like the Essenes, the Community Rule insisted on community ownership of property and provides rules for joining the community that are likewise similar to other descriptions of the Essenes. It speaks of a ceremonial meal to be shared only by ritually pure members and prescribes an oath to be taken by new members. It also seems to hold that only celibate men may become full members of the sect.

On the other hand, some scholars have argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls are not related to the supposed Essene community at Qumran. In these theory they form a depository of texts probably originating in Jerusalem, and were placed in Qumran for safe keeping when the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Broshi, Magen: The Damascus document reconsidered (Israel Exploration Society: Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, 1992)
• Davies, P. R.: The Damascus covenant: an interpretation of the "Damascus document" (Sheffield, 1983)
• Ginzberg, L.: An Unknown Jewish Sect (E.T.: New York, 1976)
• Kahle, Paul: The Cairo Genizah (Oxford: Blackwell, 1959)
• Rabin, C.: The Zadokite documents, 1: the admonition, 2: the laws (2nd ed. Oxford, 1958)
• Reif, Stefan: Article "Cairo Genizah," in Encyclopaedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford: OUP: forthcoming 1997) ed LH Schiffman and JC VanderKam
• Rowley, H. H.: The Zadokite fragments and the Dead Sea scrolls (Oxford: Blackwell, 1952)
• Schechter, S.: Documents of Jewish sectaries/ edited from Hebrew MSS. in the Cairo Genizah collection, now in the possession of the University Library, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1910) 2 v
• Zeitlin, Solomon: The Zadokite fragments: facsimile of the manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah collection in the possession of the University Library, Cambridge, England (Philadelphia: Dropsie College, 1952)

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