the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

Paul
HEINZ-WOLFGANG KUHN 167
4. The Common Meal 46
1 Corinthians 11:23–26: “For I received from the Lord the tradition that
I handed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest took bread,
[24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my
body, which is for you; do this in memory of me.’ [25] In the same way,
he also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant
sealed by my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in memory of me.’
[26] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim
the death of the Lord, until he comes.”
Qumran
See 1QS 6.4–6, with parallel texts in 4Q: 4QS d (4Q258) 2.9–10 par. 1QS
6.4–6; 4QS g (4Q261) frag. 2a–c lines 4–5 par. 1QS 6.4–5. Divergences
from the manuscript 1QS do not really exist (besides spellings and the
dittography in 1QS 6.5–6, which is missing in 4QS d [4Q258] 2.10). The
narrower context in 1QS 6 extends from near the end of line 1 to the
beginning words of line 8 and has the heading: “In these (ways) [2] they
shall walk in all their places of residence, each person who is there
together with his companion.” It includes: “And then, when they prepare
the table for eating or the (new) wine (#wryth 47 ) [5] for drinking, the
priest shall stretch out his hand as the first to recite the benediction over
the firstfruit of the bread [6] and the (new) wine.”
Also see 1QS a (1Q28a) 2.17–22 (there is no certainty about the exact assignment
of the fragments 4Q pap cryptA SE f [= 4Q249f; also identified as
cryptA MSM f ] frags. 1–3 lines 8–9; SE g [= 4Q249g; also identified as cryptA
MSM g ] frags. 3–7 lines 18–19; SE h [= 4Q249h; also identified as cryptA
MSM h ] frag. 3 line 1). Until now it has not been possible to decipher the
fragment in lines 10–12, or where gaps have been filled, the text is questionable.
But we can safely say that from line 12 on “the Anointed One”
46. For all details I have to refer to my lengthy article “The Qumran Meal and the
Lord’s Supper in Paul in the Context of the Graeco-Roman World,” in Paul, Luke and
the Graeco-Roman World (ed. A. Christophersen et al.; London: Sheffield Academic
Press, 2002), 221–48.
47. In this context the Hebrew word #wryt means “wine” or perhaps particularly
“new wine” (wine in its first year) in accordance with the feast of the new wine in the
Temple Scroll (11Q19–20; 11Q21[?]; 4Q524). #wryt is probably preferred to Nyy (the
normal word for “wine”) in the Qumran community because the word belongs to a
priestly language related to the theology of creation.