The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

GORDON M. ZERBE 329
1QS displays a sharp social identity, marked on the one hand by complete
separation from outsiders (e.g., 1.10–11; 2.4–18; 2.25–3.12; 5.1–2,
8, 10, 14–20), and on the other hand by measures to facilitate internal
social integration (see below on nonretaliation). Fundamental to 1QS is
the notion that the congregation is a “community” (dxy) 32 ; to join is “to
live in community” (5.6) and “to be converted in common/community
(dxyb) to his covenant” (5.22); indeed, “to become a community (twyhl
dxyl) with regard to Torah and with regard to property (Nwhb)” (5.2).
The preamble indicates that one of the purposes of the rule itself is that
voluntary members “may be united in the Council of God” (1.8). All volunteers
“shall bring all their understanding and power and property (Nwh)
into the Community of God: to purify their understanding in the truth of
the precepts of God, and to order their powers according to the perfection
of his ways, and all their property according to His righteous Counsel”
(1.11–13; cf. 3.2–3). This triad of “understanding, power, and property”
appears to draw on the Shema (Deut 6:5), “property” corresponding to
“strength,” confirming that for the covenanters the disposition of wealth
was a critical mark of covenantal fidelity. 33 Practically, this principle
meant that a full member was required to “mingle with the property of
the Many” (6.17; cf. 6.22), that is, to hand over all possessions to the
community. 1QS depicts a community of goods (resources), production,
and consumption. 34 Ultimate authority in matters of property, as with
other community processes, is vested with the priests. 35 Moreover, as
Catherine Murphy has shown, the community’s practice of giving to a
common pool and subjecting assets to communal discipline is construed
32. Also translatable as “union, togetherness, joining, association.” Cf. koinwni/a in
the discussion of community of goods in Philo, Hypoth. (Apol.) 11.10–14; Prob. 76–79,
85–86, 91; Josephus refers to to__koinwniko&n
(J.W. 2.122; cf. 2.127; Ant. 18.20, 22).
33. See Matthew Black, The Scrolls and Christian Origins (Edinburgh: Nelson, 1961),
123, who notes the same interpretation in the targumic version; Murphy, Wealth in the
DSS, 117–18, 120–28, highlights also the Deuteronomic character of 1QS.
34. Covenanters are “those who are together” (1QS 6.2). “They shall eat in common,
bless in common, and deliberate in common” (6.2–3). The Many must “watch
in common for a third of all the nights of the year, to read the Book and study the
law and bless in common” (6.7–8). See n46 (below) for the argument that 1QS also
legislates for not fully production-communalized groups.
35. The priests retain authority in decreeing in any matter, “whether it concerns
Torah, or property, or justice” (1QS 5.2–3; cf. 6.22 for the three items). According to
6.2, “in whatever concerns work or property (Nwmm), the lower shall obey the higher”;
in 9.7, “the sons of Aaron alone shall command in matters of justice and property.”
Cf. also 5.6, 20–23. On the combination of priestly authority and democracy in 1QS,
see, e.g., Sanders, Judaism, 365–66. In Instruction (Sapiential Work), the priest is identified
as the “ruler over God’s treasury” (4Q418 frag. 8 line 9).