Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

un]clean until the eve[n]ing. The man who carri[es the plot containing the water that removes
impurity will be im[pure . . .] (6) A man [should sprinkle] the water that removes impurity upon those
who are imp[ure, in]deed a pu[re] priest [should sprinkle (7) the water that removes impurity on
the]m. Thu[s he will] atone for the impure. No wicked man is to sprinkle upon the impure. A m[an]
(8) [. . . the water that removes im]purity. They should enter the water and become pu[r]e from the
impurity that comes from contact with dead people . . . (9) [an]other. [The priest [should] sprinkle
them with the water that removes impurity, to purify (10) [. . . R]ather they shall become pure, and
their [fl]esh p[ure.] Anyone who touches [him . . .] (11) his flux . . . and their [hands] unwashed with
water, (12) [then] they shall be impure . . . his be[d] and [his] sea[t . . .] they touched his [f]lux, (it) is
like the impurity [that comes from contact with dead people.] (13) [The] man who touches (these
things) [should bathe and be] impure till [the] evening, and the man who carries (these things) [should
wash] his [cl]othes and be impure till evening.
40. The Foundations Of Righteousness (The End Of The Damascus Document: An
Excommunication Text - 4Q266) (Plates 19 & 20)
There can be no doubt that what we have here is the last column of the Damascus Document. Though
the text as we have it here does not precisely follow any material from either of the two overlapping
known manuscripts found by Solomon Schechter in the Cairo Genizah in 1897, many of its allusions
do. So does their spirit.
The piece is preserved in two copies: one is nicely ruled; the second, in what is called 'semi-cursive',
would appear to be a private copy. We present the second, which is the more completely preserved,
with occasional help from the first to fill in blanks. That it really is the last column of the document is
ascertainable from the blank spaces on the parchment at the left. The edge of a previous column with
some stitching is also visible on the right (see Plates 19-20). The Hebrew here is often close to
Mishnaic, and apparently superior to medieval recensions. This text also contains one interlinear
addition between Lines 4 and 5, as well as one or two corrections.
The correspondences are principally to Columns i, viii and xv of the Cairo version of the Damascus
Document. There are also interesting new materials in the present document, e.g. about a convocation
of those who 'dwell in camps' on 'the third month' - in Judaism, Shevuot / 'the Feast of Weeks'; in
Christianity, Pentecost. The purpose of the convocation would appear not to be to celebrate the
revelation and descent of the Holy Spirit, and by implication the abolition of the Law in favour of
more Pauline, Gentile-oriented doctrines and devices as in Acts 2: lff. (see also the picture of Paul
hurrying to Jerusalem to be in time for Pentecost below). It is rather to curse all those who depart in
any manner from the Law or 'the Torah of Moses' (17-19).
In fact, the text is an excommunication text, similar to that embedded in the Chariots of Glory in
Chapter 7. The words there are to be pronounced by the Community Council. The words here are to
be pronounced 'by the Priest commanding the Many' (see our discussion of the Mebakker below) on
'anyone who rejects these judgements based on the (exact) sense of all the Laws found in the Torah of
Moses' (5-6). 'Rebellion' is referred to in Line 7, and Lines 9-10 contain the actual 'curse' to be
pronounced by this 'priest' (high priest?) on the rebellious person being 'expelled from the presence of
the Many'.