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

MOSHE WEINFELD 63
I shall remove illness from your midst. None will miscarry or go barren in
your land.
This is elaborated in Deut 7:13–26 in a chapter which depends on the
peroration in Exod 23:20–33. 14 Here we read:
He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil…the increase
of your herds…and your flocks of sheep; there will be neither male nor
female barren among you and your livestock. And the Lord will remove
from you all sickness.
To all appearance, this genre of blessings and curses has its origin in
the tribal confederation based on covenant; hence the similarity to the
blessings and curses of amphictyonic oaths in Greece. The stereotyped
series of blessings and curses in Deut 28:3–6, 16–19, thus belongs to the
ancient covenant ceremony that is elaborated by the Deuteronomic
author of 28:7–14, 20–68. The Deuteronomic expansions have a lot in
common with the Assyrian and Aramaean treaties of the eighth–seventh
centuries B.C.E. and thus are much later than the short stereotypic
blessings and curses that have their parallels in the Greek tribal milieu. 15
The “curses” in 27:14–26 represent a different genre. These are not
threats of punishment as are those in 28:16–19, but legal proclamations
accompanied by a curse and addressed to those who commit crimes clandestinely,
which cannot be punished by the civil or religious authority.
Such “curses” are also attested in the Greek tribal culture. In Greece those
who violated the law were reviled by the leaders and priests of the polity
and were made “accursed” (Gk. eparatoi). So, for example, it is related of
Alcibiades (Plutarch, Alc. 27) that he was found liable at law for desecrating
the sacra of Demeter. After placing his property under the “ban,” his
judges decided that the priests and priestesses should curse him.
Aristides is said to have suggested that the priests should cast curses
on anyone who abandoned the war-treaty with the Greeks (Plutarch,
Arist. 10). As in Greece so in Israel it is the sacred group (the Levites) who
have the authority to “revile,” i.e., excommunicate the transgressors.
Our analysis of the covenant and especially the Shechemite covenant
has shown that the blessings and curses constitute the most important element
of the covenant and hence the stress laid upon the covenant in the
Rule of the Community. The covenantal nature of the Manual of Discipline
comes to bold expression in 1QS 2.12–17, citing the pericope of Deut
28:69–29:28.
14. See Weinfeld, DDS, 46–48.
15. Ibid, 186–187.