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The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

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BETZ <strong>The</strong> Qumran Halakhah Text 4QMMT 189<br />

Wacholder's CD version this list is enlarged <strong>in</strong> a remarkable way. We<br />

have there a strange mixture of physical defects and moral s<strong>in</strong>s. First<br />

are mentioned those who suffer from leprosy or from a flux (1.12).<br />

Together with them we f<strong>in</strong>d people who rebel aga<strong>in</strong>st men ano<strong>in</strong>ted<br />

with the holy spirit and aga<strong>in</strong>st the mouth of God; they are followed<br />

by those who slaughter cattle and other animals <strong>in</strong> a forbidden way<br />

(1.15). Most remarkable is the man who reveals the secret of his<br />

people to the Gentiles or utters a curse aga<strong>in</strong>st it (1.13). This crime of<br />

high treason, not known <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Bible</strong>, and its punishment by crucifixon<br />

is dealt with explicitly <strong>in</strong> the Temple Scroll and only there (1 IQMiqd<br />

62.7-12, based upon Deut. 21.22-23; but see 4QpNah I 7-8 and<br />

Josephus Ant. 13.380). This means that we have a remarkable connection<br />

between the Temple Scroll and the orig<strong>in</strong>al version of the<br />

Zadokite Fragments. Moreover, this Qumran law on high treason can<br />

hardly come from the era of Esra; it rather fits the time of Alexander<br />

Jannaeus (see 4QpNah I 7-8).<br />

In 4QMMT B 40-49 restrictions of sexual <strong>in</strong>tercourse are mentioned<br />

<strong>in</strong> order to ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> purity. In the larger text of CD (De<br />

fragm. 9.2.16-17; De fragm. 9.1.16-18) we have the prohibition of<br />

<strong>in</strong>tercourse on a certa<strong>in</strong> day (sabbath? Yom Kippur?); accord<strong>in</strong>g to<br />

CD 12.1-2 it is not allowed <strong>in</strong> the holy city. Moreover, 4QMMT B<br />

80-82 warns aga<strong>in</strong>st certa<strong>in</strong> marriages of the priests. In CD 4.15-18<br />

the priests of Jerusalem are accused of be<strong>in</strong>g caught <strong>in</strong> three nets of<br />

Belial: adultery (forbidden marriages), wealth, and the pollution of<br />

the sanctuary.<br />

Accord<strong>in</strong>g to 4QMMT B 5 the corn and the sacrifice of the Gentiles<br />

should not be admitted to the temple. In 4QFlorilegium an allergy<br />

aga<strong>in</strong>st the admittance of Gentiles to the sanctuary is to be felt: the<br />

foreigner and the proselyte are excluded from the liv<strong>in</strong>g temple of the<br />

Qumran community (I 4); Ezek. 44.6-9 stands <strong>in</strong> the background. <strong>The</strong><br />

rabbis of the Mishnah are more lenient, 23 and quite different is the<br />

attitude of the apostles <strong>in</strong> Acts 15.16-17: <strong>The</strong> spiritual house of God,<br />

the eschatological community, must be built of Jews and Gentiles<br />

23. See L.H. Schiffman, 'Legislation concern<strong>in</strong>g relations with Non-Jews <strong>in</strong> the<br />

Zadoqite Fragments and <strong>in</strong> Tannaitic Literature' RevQ 41 (1982), pp. 379ff. As <strong>in</strong><br />

his articles on 4QMMT, Schiffman gives an excellent comparison of Qumran regulations<br />

with rabb<strong>in</strong>ic halakhoth. As <strong>in</strong> 4QMMT the rules <strong>in</strong> CD are stricter than those of<br />

the Chakhamim. See also G. Blidste<strong>in</strong>, '4QFlorilegium and Rabb<strong>in</strong>ic Sources on<br />

Bastard and Proselyte', RevQ 8 (1974), pp. 431-35.

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