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

RANDALL D. CHESNUTT 417
In these texts oil and other liquids are the carriers rather than the source
of contamination. They adhere to surfaces that have been exposed to
some unclean object or person, and they transmit that impurity to anyone
who touches them even after the original source of defilement has
been removed. Rules (4Q513 = 4QOrdinances b ) frag. 13.4 (see also frag.
12.1) likewise notes the risk of being “[so]iled with oil” (Nm#b Myl)[gm]).
The fragmentary halakhic text Harvesting (4Q284a frag. 1), if the restoration
by Baumgarten is accurate, 68 warns of potential contamination during
the process of extracting olive oil. The Temple Scroll indicates that any
oil brought into the holy city must be pure (11Q19 [= 11QTemple a ]
47.5–13). In the War Scroll, even the concern for the purity of priests on
the battlefield is couched in metaphorical language suggestive of oil’s susceptibility
to defilement: 1QM 9.8–9 declares “they shall [no]t profane
the oil of their priestly anointing (Mtnwhk txy#m Nm#) through the
blood of nations of vanity,” and a parallel in 4Q491 (= 4QM a ) 3.5 reads
“they shall not profane the oil of their priesthood (Mtnwhk Nm#).” 69
In rabbinic halakah, the character of liquids as carriers of impurity
receives extensive elaboration. The Mishnah declares that while solid
foods transmit impurity only to other foods, unclean liquids contaminate
vessels as well (m. Parah 8.5). Moreover, the grade of impurity conveyed
by solid foods diminishes with each derivative contact, but liquids, even
if touched by someone or something bearing secondary impurity,
become unclean to the first degree and transmit that first degree impurity
to other liquids without any diminution through the chain of derivative
contact (m. Parah 8.5–7; m. T9ehar. 2.6; 3.1; t. T9ehar 1.5; b. Ber. 52a). Solid
foods are rendered susceptible to impurity if they become wet, 70 even in
Aramaic and Greek Texts with English Translations, Vol. 2, Damascus Document, War Scroll, and
Related Documents (ed. J. H. Charlesworth et al.; PTSDSSP 2; Tübingen: Mohr
Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 4–58. On the reading Nm# ylw)g,
“oil stains,” as opposed to the emendations proposed by Schechter and Rabin, see
Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law, 88–89; and Baumgarten and Schwartz, “The
Damascus Document,” 53n188.
68. Joseph M. Baumgarten, “Liquids and Susceptibility to Defilement in New 4Q
Texts,” JQR 85 (1994): 94.
69. Texts and translations of the War Scroll and related materials are from Jean
Duhaime, “War Scroll,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts with
English Translations, Vol. 2, Damascus Document, War Scroll, and Related Documents (ed. J. H.
Charlesworth et al.; PTSDSSP 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster
John Knox, 1995), 80–141.
70. The entire Mishnaic tractate Maks irin ] deals with items that are rendered susceptible
to impurity by wetting. Lev 11:34–38 provides the biblical springboard for
these laws. See also m. Tehar. 3.1–2; t. Maks . ] ; y. Seb. 6.1 (36c); b. Hul. 36a–b; and the
discussion by Jacob Neusner, A History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities (SJLA 6; Leiden:
Brill, 1974–77), passim, esp. 12:133–60.