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

206 THE QUMRAN CONCEPT OF TIME
the community, their provenience is difficult to establish because these
documents do not typically use the technical terms of the community. 13
Significantly, however, a calendar begins one extant copy of Some Works of
the Torah, 14 and another calendar may have been part of one manuscript
Sea Psalms Scroll (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967), 134–37; “David’s Compositions,”
in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts with English Translations.
Vol. 4A, Pseudepigraphic and Non-Masoretic Psalms and Prayers (ed. J. H. Charlesworth; PTS-
DSSP 4A; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998),
213–15). Both Michael Chyutin and Peter W. Flint suggest that the 364-day calendar
shaped the structure of the Psalter preserved by 11Q5 (Michael Chyutin, “The
Redaction of the Qumranic and the Traditional Book of Psalms as a Calendar” RevQ
16 [1994]: 367–95; and Peter W. Flint, The Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls and the Book of Psalms
[STDJ 17; Leiden: Brill, 1997], 182–93).
13. Wise notes that 4Q324 c is written in Cryptic Script A (“Primo Annales Fuere: An
Annalistic Calendar from Qumran,” 188). It has been suggested that the Cryptic
Scripts indicate Qumran provenience for the manuscript.
14. 4Q394 frags. 1–2, 3–7 col. 1; see James H. Charlesworth, ed., in The Dead Sea
Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts with English Translations, Vol. 3, Damascus Document
Fragments, Some Works of the Torah, and Related Documents (ed. J. H. Charlesworth; PTSDSSP
3; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005). One of the controversial
aspects of Some Works of the Torah (4Q394-399) is the possible presence and significance
of a calendrical text. In their reconstruction of Some Works of the Torah, Elisha
Qimron and John Strugnell (Qumran Cave 4.V: Miqsat Ma(ase ha-Torah [DJD 10; Oxford:
Clarendon, 1994]) originally associated a calendrical text (the Composite Text section A)
with the beginning of the document. This calendrical text lists Sabbaths and festivals,
coordinating them with the specific day of the month. Such coordination is only possible
from the 364-day solar calendar. Qimron and Strugnell provided 4Q394 frags. 1–2 as
some of the manuscript evidence for this reconstruction. However, the identification of
what Qimron and Strugnell call 4Q394 frags. 1–2 as part of the same manuscript of the
rest of the fragments of 4Q394 has been called into question. 4Q394 frags. 1–2 were previously
designated as a separate document, 4Q327, and James C. VanderKam argues
that they represent a different manuscript than 4Q394 (“The Calendar, 4Q327, and
4Q394,” in Legal Texts and Legal Issues: Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the International
Organization for Qumran Studies, Cambridge 1995 Published in Honour of Joseph M. Baumgarten
[ed. M. Bernstein, F. García Martínez, and J. Kampen; STDJ 23; Leiden: Brill, 1997],
179–94). VanderKam, who builds on the arguments of Florentino García Martínez, lists
several problems with identifying 4Q394 frags. 1–2 as part of the same manuscript of the
rest of 4Q394 (cf. García Martínez, “Dos notas sobre 4QMMT,” RevQ 16 [1993]: 293–97;
Florentino García Martínez’s arguments are addressed to the edition of 4Q394–399 published
by Robert H. Eisenman and Michael O. Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The
First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld for Over 35 Years
[Rockport, MA: Element, 1992]). First, concerning the arrangement of the text, the physical
manuscript of 4Q394 frags. 1–2 is much shorter than that of frags. 7–9; the columns
of frags. 1–2 are only one or two words long in contrast to the rest of 4Q394; the letters
are shorter and the lines tend to be closer together than on the other fragments of 4Q394
(VanderKam, “The Calendar, 4Q327, and 4Q394,” 184–85; see also García Martínez,
“Dos notas sobre 4QMMT,” 294). Second, the scripts of fragments 1–2 are palaeographically
different from the rest of 4Q394 (VanderKam, “The Calendar, 4Q327, and
4Q394,” 185–87). Third, VanderKam points out that while frags. 1–2 and the rest of
4Q394 use final mems in medial positions, only the rest of 4Q394 use medial mems in final