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

SHEMARYAHU TALMON 47
This particularity highlights the decidedly cultic character of these sources,
and prompts the conclusion that, for the yah[ad, calendrical computations
were foremost the concern of the religious authorities, and calendar
controversy the battle ground of priestly families.
To the priests’ prerogatives also relate tables in which the service cycle
of the “Priestley Watches” or “Courses” (mis ]ma4rôt) are detailed. These registers
evince the Covenanters’ conviction that their abstention from participation
in the Temple cult was of only a temporary nature. They
fervently awaited the rebuilding of a new temple in which their own priesthood
would conduct the holy service in accord with their solar calendar
and their ritual rulings, as foreseen in the Temple Scroll and in a work entitled
“New Jerusalem” (2Q24; 44 4Q554; 4Q555; 45 11Q18 46 ). The various
tables in which the service cycle of the mis ]ma4rôt in the Temple is detailed
relate to this cultic domain. The schema is based on a list of twenty-four
priestly watches with whose appointment the author of Chronicles credits
King David (1 Chr 24:7–31). In yah[ad documents the genesis of this
arrangement is traced to the very creation of the universe. This ascription
is echoed in the composite calendrical scroll 4Q320. 47 A fragmentary
account of the Creation tradition culminates in a reference to the fashioning
of the great luminaries on the fourth day (cf. Jub. 2:8–9). Of this
exposé only the closing remark is preserved, which, according to the prevailing
interpretation, speaks of the moon’s “appearing from the east…in
the midst of heaven…from evening until morning” (4Q320 frag. 1 cols.
1–3). The cosmic event ensuingly is linked with concordant dates in the
lunar and the solar calendar, and the corresponding days in a 3-year service
cycle of the priestly watches (frag. 1 col. 1 lines 3–5):
On the fourth (day) in the week (of service) of the sons [of (mis ]mār) Ga]mul,
in the first month in [the fir]st (solar) year (vacat) (cf. frag. 3 col. 1 line 12:
[the sons] of Gamul at the head of all years).
Mis ]ma4rôt lists fall in several subcategories which answer to the particular
requirements of the priestly hierarchy:
44. Jozef T. Milik, “Description de la Jérusalem Nouvelle,” in “Les Petites Grottes” de Qumrân
(ed. M. Baillet, J. T. Milik, and R. de Vaux; DJD 3; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), 184–89.
45. To be definitively published by É. Puech in Qumran Grotte 4.XXVII: Textes
Arameens, deuxième Partie: 4Q550-575, 580–582 (DJD 37; Oxford: Clarendon, forthcoming).
For the present, see É. Puech, “Apropos de la Jérusalem Nouvelle d’apres les
manuscripts de la Mer Morte,” Sem 43–44 (1995): 87–102.
46. Florentino Garcia Martinez, Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar and Adam van der Woude,
Qumran Cave 11 II 11Q2-18, 11Q20-31, DJD XXIII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 305–355.
47. Shemaryahu Talmon, “4QCalendrical Document/Mishmarot A,” in Qumran Cave
4.XVI: Calendrical Texts (ed. S. Talmon; DJD 21; Oxford: Clarendon, 2001), 37–63.