The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

198 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
with laymen. They claimed to be the true 'Bene Sadoq'. Their ancestor
and great example was 'Sadoq', the priest of David (2 Sam. 15.24-
37; 1 Kgs 1.22-39; 2.35); according to CD 5.4-5 this Sadoq had
revealed the book of the Law to his king. That is why the priests
at Qumran were called 'Bene Sadoq' (1QS 5.2, 9; 1QS a 1.2). But
the Dead Sea Scrolls are very careful to distinguish them from the
ordinary priests and especially from this serving at the temple in
Jerusalem. For the 'Bene Sadoq' are those who kept the covenant and
seek the will of God (1QS 5.2, 9); they did penitence in Israel and left
the land of Judah (CD 4.2-3). As the ideal of priestly purity was
extended to the lay people of the Qumran community, so the designation
'Bene Sadoq': after the priests and Levites the Bene Sadoq represent
the laity in the Damascus Covenant (see the interpretation of
Ezek. 44.15 in CD 3.21-4.4). And there is a play on the two designations
'Bene Sadoq' and 'Bene Sedeq (1QS 9.14): the Israelites at
Qumran are 'Bene Sadoq', too, because they are righteous and faithful
members of the Covenant, keeping the law according to the truth,
which had been revealed by the Teacher of Righteousness. Therefore
the Qumran 'Bene Sadoq' must be distinguished from the Sadducees of
Josephus and have to be identified with the Essenes. The 'difference'
(diaphorotes) mentioned by Josephus must be taken very seriously: the
sacred rites of the Essenes differed from those of the other Jewish
religious groups (Ant. 18.19). This agrees with the texts of Qumran:
the true service for God has to be performed outside of and in opposition
to the sacrificial cult in the Jerusalem temple. The sacrifice of
the lips and the works of the law (ma 'ase ha-torah) are the offerings
well-pleasing to God, and the living temple of the community, the
sanctuary (consisting) of men, makes atonement for the land (1QS
8.6). And under the Teacher of Righteousness (= Sadoq?) the law is
revealed again, as Sadoq had done it for king David (CD 5.4-5). As
for the Pharisees, the study of the law became the most important duty
for the Sadoqite priests, and through such an activity the law and the
prophets will be 'revealed' again. This attitude toward the written law
is different from the orthodoxy of the Sadducees and from the doctrine
of a dual (written and oral) Torah of the Pharisees. 28 The ideal
28. There are, of course, Qumran commandments which seem to be independent
from the written law such as CD 12.6-11, the laws concerning communication with
Gentiles or the regulations for the discipline of the communal life in 1QS cols. 6 and
7. But they are not understood as an oral law in addition to the written law, given by