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

JOSEPH M. BAUMGARTEN 99
In Num 8:7 the purification of the Levites is described as requiring the
sprinkling of t)+x ym. Mediaeval and modern commentators have
identified this sprinkling water with the hdn ym of Numbers 19. 6 Rashi,
in fact, took its purpose to be the purification of the Levites from possible
corpse impurity. Yet, this is not stated in the text. It is quite plausible
that other exegetes supposed this sprinkling water to be intended for
general cleansing from any possible source of impurity.
Such an approach is indeed reflected in Siphre Zuta:
t)+x trpb w#dqtn l)r#y hyyzhb w#dqtn Myywlh]…
7 hmwd) hrp Kyl) wxqyw l)r#y ynb l) rbd rm)n#
Here the red cow is designated as the means by which Israel was sanctified.
Gedalia Alon properly took this to mean that the covenant at Sinai,
just as the inauguration of the Levites, was preceded by sprinkling. 8 This
inference may be supported by reference to Philo, who says that the people
at Sinai “had cleansed themselves with ablutions and sprinklings
loutroi=j te kai\ perirranthri/oij (Decal. 45).
New Testament scholars have observed that in Hebrews 9 the description
of the sanctification associated with the “first covenant,” that is the
one at Sinai, appears to conflate diverse purification rituals:
For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses
in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with
water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and
all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has
ordained for you.” (Hebrews 9:19)
The sprinkling of the blood of oxen and the recitation accompanying it
is found in Exodus 24, but the water, the scarlet, and the hyssop derive
from the ritual of the red cow, which is mentioned in Heb 9:13. However,
in view of what we have found at Qumran, the association of purification
by water containing the ashes with the covenant at Sinai no longer
appears so remote, although the Jewish sources which we cited allude to
it as preparatory to the covenant rather than its sequel. We must also
leave to New Testament scholars the problematic mention in some textual
witnesses of goats and the sprinkling of water upon the scroll.
Nevertheless, I hope that this illustration may serve as another indication
6. For a recent discussion of this question see Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 1–20 (AB
4A; New York: Doubleday, 1993), 274–75.
7. H. Saul Horovitz, Siphre zuta le-seder ba-Midbar, in Siphre d’Be Rab (Jerusalem:
Wahrmann Books, 1966), 251 (Hebrew); repr. of 1917 Leipzig edition.
8. Alon, Ibid, 1:139. (Hebrew) See there Jacob Epstein’s editorial note, which questions
whether this midrash is an integral part of Sipre Zutta.