Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

39. Laws Of The Red Heifer (Purity Laws Type B - 4Q276-277)
The two manuscripts presented here are of the most interesting subject matter: the law of the Red
Heifer, a subject already referred to in the First Letter on Works Reckoned as Righteousness above.
The Red Heifer purification ceremony was one of the most holy in Jewish tradition. It is also,
interestingly enough, echoed in the name the Koran gives to its principal Sura, 'the Cow' (2). Most of
the laws governing this purification procedure are to be found in Num. 19 and indeed, most of the
matters alluded to in these texts are to be found there, though there are some interesting additions in
these two Qumran texts.
According to Numbers, the people were to prepare this heifer by burning it with cedar wood, hyssop
and scarlet material. The ashes were then gathered and mixed with water. This water, known as 'the
water that removes impurity', was sprinkled upon those who had acquired certain types of ritual
impurity - including some of the bodily and sexual impurities mentioned in the preceding text. Unlike
Numbers, these two texts appear to have a special interest in the clothes worn by those taking part in
the heifer's preparation. Apparently these clothes were to serve only for the ceremony and could not
be worn for profane tasks. The vessel in which the presiding priest (usually, if not always during the
Second Temple period, the high priest) gathered the heifer's blood at a certain point in the ceremony
was a special one. The Bible does not make this stipulation. Possibly Manuscript B Line 2 attempts to
clarify the meaning of an uncertain phrase in Num. 19:9. The Biblical text says that the ashes of the
heifer are to be gathered by a 'pure man'. What, precisely, did this phrase require? According to
Josephus, the understanding in the first century was that the phrase was intended to designate a priest
for the task, as opposed to a layman. The Qumran text may take a different tack, specifying that the
man be innocent of all defiling sins. That is to say, specific sins were understood to be ritually
defiling.