The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

184 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
4QMMT has indeed prudence and knowledge of the law (C 29-30).
But he needs to consider miqsat ma'ase ha-torah, which means the
exact way by which some df the precepts of the law should be done.
He must increase his insight (sekhal) in the true meaning of the commandments
of God.
Similarly, people should consider the ma 'ase 'el, the way God is
accustomed to act in history (CD l.lff; 2.14; 13.7-8). This is recommended
in 4QMMT C 18-22. The deeds of God are revealed in the
scripture, too. The Bible reports how in the history of ancient Israel
the blessings and curses of God were realized. Moreover, one has to
remember the kings of Israel (C 24) and to consider their deeds
(ma'asehimmah). One must remember David and his life, which was
blessed by God (C 27-28), and in contrast to it the fate and the downfall
of the kings who followed (C 19-20).
There was no doctrine of a dual Torah at Qumran; at this point we
have an agreement with the Sadducees. Quite different from them is
the Qumran concern, that people have to search in the written law and
to be open for new discoveries and revelations of the hidden things in
the Torah. In 4QMMT the principle of sola scriptura, of the sole
authority of the written law, becomes quite evident: normative is
'what is written (kdtub) in the Book of Moses' (C 6.11, 12). And there
is much confidence in the truth of one's own exegesis; the opening
declarations: 'We hold...' ('anahnu hoshebim B 29.36), 'we say...'
('anahnu 'omerim B 55) are written with an authority, which reminds
us of the phrase of Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount: 'I say unto
you' (Mt. 5.22ff.).
The understanding of scripture in 4QMMT is quite similar to that in
the Manual of Discipline (1QS) and the Zadoqite Fragments (CD). For
the task of revering the law and searching in it is emphasized by the
writer (see 4QMMT C 10-34). At the beginning of the parenetic
section C 10-34 the addressee is admonished 'to understand (bin) the
Book of Moses and the words of the prophets, David [i.e. the Psalms],
and the Book of Chronicles' (C 10f.). This is a very early description
of the canon. One may compare it with Lk. 24.44 where 'the Law of
Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms' are mentioned; there, too, the
necessity of their correct understanding (synienai = bin Lk. 24.45) is
mentioned. We do not find such a comprehensive designation of the
sacred scriptures in the other Qumran texts; there is emphasis on the
law which God has commanded through Moses and which has been