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

SHEMARYAHU TALMON 45
[ tb# wb y](ybrb dx)b
[wb \////¬ b y#yl# Mwy xsph wb \///¬b t]b# wb \¬ )b
[wb /////b tb# wb \\\/////¬b y](ybr Mwy twcmh gx
tb#h rx) Myrw(]# d(wm wb \/////b tb# 41
The restoration in 1.2 of \///¬ “on the fourteenth in it (viz., the first
month) the Passah on the third day (of the week),” is suggested by the
ensuing extant text in 1. 3 y(ybr Mwy twcmh gx, the Mazzoth Feast on
the four[th] day (of the week),” viz., on the fifteenth of the first month,
and by the required restoration of the latter half of the line.
In Qumran calendrical documents only the first day of the week-long
Mazzoth Feast, like the first day of the week-long Feast of Booths, is
recorded. There is no mention of the last day, which biblical law designates
miqra4) qôdes , ] “sacred assembly” (Exod 12:16; Lev 23:8, 36; Num
28:25) or (as[eret (Lev 23:36; Num 29:35; Deut 16:8; Neh 8:18; 2 Chr
7:9). Further, in the Covenanters’ time schema the last three “holy seasons”
of the year fall in the seventh month: the Day of Remembrance on
the first, the Day of Atonement on the tenth, and the Feast of Booths on
the fifteenth. The post-biblical festival of H@ anukkah and the biblical festival
of Purim, which mainstream Judaism observes in the ninth month
(Kislev) and the twelfth (Adar) respectively, are not listed. 42
The ya4h[ad schema of “holy seasons,” which resembles a type of festival-roster
termed twd(wm rds in the rabbinic tradition (y. (Erub. 21c),
can be illustrated by a calendrical document, which originally appears to
have contained thirteen extremely narrow columns with lines containing
between three and ten letters and interword spaces (4Q394 frags. 1–2
cols. 1–5). 43 Although only fragments of five columns are preserved, the
missing parts can be conjecturally reconstructed on the basis of information
gleaned from other pertinent texts. In this item the dates of every
single Sabbath and all biblical feasts throughout the year are detailed,
together with the dates of the Covenanters’ particular harvest festivals of
the (New) Wine and the (New) Oil, which occur at intervals of fifty
days, and the feast of the “Wood Offering” (cf. 4Q394 frags. 1–2 col. 5
41. Restored on the basis of 4Q325 1.3: rx) wb h##w Myr#(b Myrw(# d[(wm]
tb#h; cf. 4Q394 1–2 and 3–7: tb[#h r] x) Nm#h d(wm wb Myn#w Myr#(b.
42. Not one fragment of the book of Esther, the biblical source of Purim, is extant
among the Qumran finds. But the book was probably known to yah[ad authors. See
Shemaryahu Talmon, “Was the Book of Esther Known at Qumran?” DSD 2 (1995):
249–67; Jonathan Ben-Dov, “A Presumed Citation of Esther 3:7 in 4QD b ,” in DSD 6
(1999): 282–84.
43. See Shemaryahu Talmon, “4Q 394 1–2 (Re-edition),” in Qumran Cave 4.XVI.
Calendrical Texts (ed. S. Talmon, J. Ben-Dov, and U. Glessmer; DJD 21; Oxford:
Clarendon, 2001), 157–66.