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

214 THE QUMRAN CONCEPT OF TIME
Mhycqb l) yrbd lwkm dx) lwkb dw(cl )wlw
Mhyt( Mdql )wlw
Mhyd(wm lwkm rx)thl )wlw
(1QS 1.13b–15a).
The references to advancing or delaying the times probably refer to following
the wrong calendars, which would cause the festivals to be celebrated
too early or too late. Additionally, at the end of the Rule of the
Community’s covenantal renewal ceremony a nearly parallel passage occurs:
May he establish his steps so that he might walk perfectly in all the ways
of God, as he commanded, at the appointed times of his fixed times, and
not to turn aside to the right or left, and not march upon (any) one from
all his commands. 39
wytdw(t yd(wml hwc r#)k l) ykrd lwkb Mymt tklhl wym(p Nykhyw
wyrbd lwkm dx) l( dw(cl Ny)w lw)m#w Nymy rwsl )wlw
(1QS 3.9–11; parallel in 4Q255 [4QS MS A]). 40
These passages attest to the halakic significance of following the correct
calendar. The times of worship have been commanded by God; failure to
worship at the correct time violates God’s Torah. As Talmon comments,
calendrical and liturgical differences constituted a radical breach between
the two groups and may have been a significant factor in the community’s
separation from the rest of Israel; 41 “Whoever does not observe the
festivals of the year at the same time as the community in which he lives,
ceases to be a member of the social body to which he hitherto belonged.” 42
PREDETERMINATION OF HISTORY
According to Some Works of the Torah, the Qumran community’s halakic
disputes with the majority of other Jews led them to withdraw from the
39. Lit. “his words.”
40. See also 1QS 9.26–8.
41. Cf., however, Some Works of the Torah (4Q394–4Q399), an early sectarian document,
which lists many of the Community’s halakic rulings in conflict with those of
the Jerusalem establishment and attributes the Community’s withdrawal from society
to these halakic disputes; “[And you know that] we have separated ourselves (wn#rp)
from the multitude of the peo[ple…and] from sharing in these things and from going
wi[th them] in these” (cols. 7–8). Although the 364-day calendar was prefixed to at
least one manuscript copy (4Q394), calendrical issues are not listed as one of the disputes
in the extant portions of the body of the document. See Qimron and Strugnell,
Miqsat Ma)ase ha-Torah.
42. Talmon, “The Calendar of the Judean Covenanters,” 149.