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

320 ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND NONRETALIATION
and jointly in the central behavioral codes of the two foundational “rules”
for governing community life: the Damascus Document (CD) and the Rule
of the Community (1QS), which probably represent two sequential or concurrent
social expressions (whether idealized or realized) within the
Essene movement. 2 Furthermore, these two themes also appear as distinctive
features of Essenes in the depictions by both Philo and Josephus,
including the latter’s listing of the major vows made by initiates. 3
In this essay, the central codes from the two rules are termed the
Precepts for Covenanters (CD 6.11–7.4) and the Vows of the Initiates
(1QS 10.8–11.2). The Precepts for Covenanters in CD presents a summary
of central and distinctive obligations for “all who have entered the
covenant” (6.11). 4 Of the seventeen separate precepts, seven deal specifically
with obligation to neighbor: four focus on economic justice (items 4,
10–12), and two on judicial procedure and nonretaliation (items 14–15);
other precepts deal with duty to God (items 1, 7–9), general matters of
2. I will proceed with the following assumptions. The “library” of Dead Sea Scrolls
is best associated with Qumran, where there was a settlement, from the middle of the
second century B.C.E. to 68 C.E., probably of one branch within a broader Essene
movement. The documents are of diverse origins, some originating in the movement’s
formative years, some imported, and some written during its period of occupation
at Qumran; see Devorah Dimant, “The Library of Qumran: Its Content and
Character,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls Fifty Years after their Discovery: 1947–1997 (ed. L. H.
Schiffman, E. Tov, and J. C. VanderKam; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society,
2000), 170–76. 1QS, itself a composite document, and other documents represent the
distinctive life and beliefs of a strongly sectarian community (or communities; 1QS
6.2–6), which can be associated with the Qumran settlement. CD was compiled or
redacted at Qumran and remained a popular document there (fragments of seven
copies found), yet also was enjoying a broader readership (thus finding its way to the
Cairo Genizah). It contains materials that represent an Essene group (or groups) either
prior to or distinct from and contemporaneous to the more strongly sectarian Qumran
community. For the general lines of this “consensus” opinion, see James H. Charlesworth,
“Foreword: Qumran Scrolls and a Critical Consensus,” in Jesus and the Dead
Sea Scrolls (ed. J. H. Charlesworth; ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1992), xxxii–xxxv.
3. This essay takes the position that Josephus remains a relatively good source on
some Essenes, but maybe not all; he seems to describe mainly the strongly sectarian
(Qumranic) version of Essenism; see Todd S. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes
Illustrated by the Dead Sea Scrolls (SNTSMS 58; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1988), who concludes that Josephus is essentially reliable, but that he is prone to exaggeration
and to casting his material in Hellenistic forms. Of the seven vows made by
initiates that are listed in Josephus’ account (J.W. 2.138–42), five can be found in the
Vows of the Initiates in more or less the same order as in Josephus’ account; one pertains
to just and proper relationships, including the refusal to wrong another (perhaps,
in kind), and one pertains to “stealing” and unclean, “iniquitous gain.”
4. Philip R. Davies, The Damascus Covenant (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 126–27,
considers the passage a summary of key aspects of the community’s distinctive
Halakah, influenced significantly by the Holiness Code (Lev 17–26).