Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

49. He Loved His Bodily Emissions (A Record of Sectarian Discipline - 4Q477) (Plate 24)
This text was evidently meant to be the kind of record the Mebakker or Bishop was supposed to keep,
as mentioned in the last column of the Damascus Document above, and columns in the extant text,
which no doubt preceded it, concerning disciplinary actions and such like 'in the camps'. The presence
of one of these records here among the corpus from Qumran not only proves such records were kept,
but provides an astonishingly vivid eye-witness testimony to the life that was led in these desert
communities preparing for 'the last days' or the 'time of the end'.
Also impressive is the consistency of its vocabulary with what we have been witnessing throughout
these texts. The mindset is fixed, the vocabulary certain, even in mundane or trivial texts and records
of this kind.
For these purposes the reference to 'soul' in Line 1.2 has its implications. We have already analysed
allusions to this important notation, both in the last Chapter and in this one. It is, of course,
widespread in the published Hymns and the Hymns of the Poor above. It is usually used in
conjunction with allusions to the Ebionim, 'Anavim and Zaddikim - 'the Poor', 'the Meek', and 'the
Righteous'. It is also used in the Habakkuk Pesher to describe the retribution visited on the Wicked
Priest for his destruction of the Righteous Teacher and members of his community. It is used in the
last column of the Damascus Document with regard to the person who has not confirmed his
attachment to 'the Torah of Moses' and 'rejected the Foundations of Righteousness'.
Its use in a crucial section of the Damascus Document to delineate an attack on 'the soul of the
Righteous'/'Righteous One' and his associates is particularly important. In life-threatening situations
like these, and probably related ones in the two collections of Hymns, it probably meant something
like 'inner being' or 'being' - even the very life of the individual or individuals involved.
In the disciplinary text before us - and it is only a disciplinary text, not an expulsion one - we have the
usual allusion to 'rebellion' in Line 1.4, no doubt against 'the Laws of Moses'. The allusion to
'rebellion', of course, is as always a negative one. We have seen it in relation to Hyrcanus' 'rebellion' -
probably against his brother Aristobulus - in the Aemilius/ Priestly Courses text above. We have seen
it throughout these texts when considering the rebellion of 'the sons of Darkness'; we have seen it, too,
in the rebellion against God highlighted at the beginning of both the Habakkuk Pesher and the
Damascus Document, and it is no doubt seen as including the rebellion of individuals like the Lying
Spouter against the Law. There is even in this context the usual allusion to 'Light', and in Line 2. 1 the
implication that what we have to do with here is a 'knowing' infraction of some kind, not an
inadvertent one of the kind alluded to at the beginning of the last column of the end of the Damascus
Document and at length in Column vii of the Community Rule.
The allusion to 'the camps of the Many' (1. 3) is also of moment in tying this text to the last column of
the Damascus Document and the activities of the Mebakker or 'Bishop' there, who is described as
record such infractions and who controls these wilderness 'camps' generally. The reference to 'the
Many' with regard to these camps also happens to solve another problem raised above. This is why
having all the texts at our disposal was so imperative for the critical historian, though perhaps not for
the philologist, i.e. someone concerned with the Translation of a single manuscript only.