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

SARIANNA METSO 295
the maskil were one and the same person. 29 This is hardly the right conclusion,
for in the Community Rule the maskil appears as the spiritual
teacher and leader of the community rather than as an administrative officer.
The responsibility of the maskil is to lead new members into the secrets
of the interpretation of the Law (1QS frag. 9, lines 14, 17–18) and to ensure
that the secrets remain within the community, hidden from outsiders (frag.
9, lines 16–20). A special duty of the maskil is to teach the doctrine of the
two spirits (1QS frag. 3, line 13–frag. 4, line 26). 30
The Rule of the Congregation introduces two groups of officials which do not
occur in the Rule of the Community at all: “the commanders, judges and officers”
(Myr+w#w My+pw# Myr#; 1QSa 1.15, 24, 29–2.1) and “the heads
of the families of the congregation” (hd(h twb) y#)r) (1.23–24, 25;
2.15–16 [reconstructed]). All terms have been borrowed from the
Pentateuch, the first group of officials from Deut 1:15–16 and Exod
18:21–22, the second from Num 31:26, and the use of these terms
reflects the wilderness imagery in which the community viewed itself. In
the Damascus Document, of these only My+pw# is attested (CD 9.10; 10.1,
4 par. 4QD e [= 4Q270] frag. 6, col. 4, lines 13, 15; 14.13 par. 4QD a [=
4Q266] frag. 10, col. 1, line 6; 15.4).
D. The Names Used for Organizational Units within the Community
The term Mybrh 31 is used only four times in the CD (13.7; 14.7, 12;
15.8) but thirty-four times in 1QS (e.g., 6.8, 15, 25; 7.16; 8.19; 9.2).
Interestingly, the term occurs only in the section of the Laws (9–16) in
the Damascus Document, 32 and only in columns 5–9 of the Rule of the
Community. In the Rule of the Community the term signifies the totality of full
members of the community, consisting of both priests and laymen, the
authoritative body where the judicial matters of the community were
decided. Those who were still in their probationary period were not yet
29. Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Penguin, 1962), 19–25.
30. Sarianna Metso, The Textual Development of the Qumran Community Rule (STDJ 21;
Leiden: Brill, 1997), 136-37n92.
31. For the meaning and translation of the term, see Hans Walter Huppenbauer,
“Mybr, bwr, br in den Sektenregel,” TZ 13 (1957): 136–37; Jean Carmignac,
“HRBYM: les Nombreux ou les Notables?” RevQ 7 (1971): 575–86; Colin G. Kruse,
“Community Functionaries in the Rule of the Community and the Damascus
Document. A Test of Chronological Relationships,” RevQ 10 (1981): 543–51.
32. To this should be added the following occurrences that have no parallel in CD:
4QD a 11 1.8 (2x); 4QD b 9.8; 4QD e frag. 7, col. 1, line 11.