Discoveries in the Judaean Desert: Volume XVIII. Qumran Cave 4: XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266-273) - Hardcover

9780198263968: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert: Volume XVIII. Qumran Cave 4: XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266-273)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198263961 ISBN 13: 9780198263968

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1997

In this long awaited edition Baumgarten presents all the known Qumran Cave 4 manuscripts of the Damascus Document on the basis of J. T. Milik's original transcriptions. These eight manuscripts antedate the two medieval Cairo Geniza texts (CD) by more than a millennium and are indispensable for all future literary and historical studies on one of the major foundational works of the Qumran community. For the first time we have the paraenetic beginning and ending of the work, as well as major additions to the legal corpus found in one of the medieval texts. The laws of this corpus and the historical identification of the Jews who formulated them were earlier in this century the subject of much controversy, but have since been largely ignored in Qumran scholarship. Some even suggested that they were not an integral part of the Damascus Document. It is now apparent from the expanded corpus that the interpretation of biblical law was a central concern of the Qumran community. Among the new subjects treated are such matters as the ethical arrangement of marriages, the role of women in the sect, and the legal status of fetal life. These laws are found side by side with allusions to the cosmic conflict of light and darkness and a view of history in which periods of wrath are ordained to precede the end of days.

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Review:

Eventually, commentaries will have to be written to include all aspects of all of the D text, ancient and medieval. But these long-term desiderata ought not lessen our gratitude to Baumgarten for producing so promptly a primary tool for further endeavours in the area of Qumranic and other ancient halakhah. (Moshe Bernstein, Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.1 (1999))

This is a welcome addition to the swelling tide of Dead Sea Scroll publications. (Biblical Archaeology Review)

To say that this volume is long awaited would be a gross understatement ... Qumran scholars must present editions of those texts which enable others who labor in related disciplines to gain access to the complex of fragments among which we feel so at home. Baumgarten has truly accomplished this purpose, as can be seen already in the scholarship that is beginning to develop around these fragments. Baumgarten has set the study of these highly significant fragments off to a good start, and for this Qumran scholarship will always be in his debt. (Lawrence H. Schiffman, Dead Sea Discoveries,)

This is a most welcome addition to the rapidly expanding DJD Series. (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament)

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