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

294 QUMRAN COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND TERMINOLOGY
the priests and the prince of the congregation, indicating that the maskil
was either a priest or a Levite 25 (see 1QSb 1.1, 3.22, 5.20). In the
Damascus Document, the role of maskil is most vague. The term occurs
there only twice in the headings of heavily redacted passages that deal
with the regulations for the camps. The passages have multiple headings
involving several addressees, and it is no longer possible to determine
which duties were specifically addressed to the maskil.
(2) dyqp and rqbm
Comparable to lyk#m are two other officials, dyqp and rqbm,
described in the Rule of the Community (1QS 6). The paqid is the leader of
the rabbim appointed to examine those who seek to become members
of the community and to teach them the community’s rules (1QS
6.14–15). The mebaqqer similarly is the leader of the rabbim (6.12). His
assigned task is the administration of the candidates’ property during
their second year of probation (6.20). Since the duties of the mebaqqer
and paqid share similarities, does this mean that they are one and the
same official or might they be two separate officials with similar duties?
Most scholars have taken the first position, albeit hesitatingly, on the
basis of the Damascus Document: 26
In CD XV, 8 the mebaqqer of the rabbim (Mybrl r#) rqbmh) is mentioned
(cf. 1QS frag. 6, line 12). According to CD frag. 13, lines 7–11 the
mebaqqer is the head of the camp, whose duty it is to teach the rabbim. He is
the one to examine the candidates, and the verb used in this context is dqp
(cf. 1QS frag. 6, line 14). On the basis of this comparison it seems likely
that mebaqqer and paqid are synonymous terms used of the same office.
Milik has argued that the paqid was a priestly leader but the mebaqqer a layman.
27 Priest came to the same conclusion having investigated the question
together with the messianic ideas of the community. 28 Vermes, on the other
hand, has argued that the mebaqqer (whom he identifies with the paqid) and
25. Cf. 2 Chr 30:22 Mylyk#mh Mywlh-lk. In 1QS 1.16–2.18 only priests and
Levites, never laymen, act as those who pronounce blessings and curses. In 4Q510
and 4Q511 the maskil has the function of reciting protective hymns against evil spirits.
26. William H. Brownlee, The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline (BASORSup 10–12;
New Haven, CT: ASOR, 1951), 25n27; Wernberg-Moeller, The Manual of Discipline,
107; Frank M. Cross, Jr., The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies. The
Haskell Lectures (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958; repr. 1976), 176; Mathias Delcor,
“Qumran. La Règle de la Communauté. Doctrines des Esséniens. I. L’Instruction des
deux esprits,” in DBSup 9:851–57, esp. 855. Knibb, The Qumran Community, 118.
27. Jozef T. Milik, Dix ans de découvertes dans le Désert de Juda (Paris: Cerf, 1957), 99–100.
28. John F. Priest, “Mebaqqer, Paqid, and the Messiah,” JBL 81 (1962): 55–61.