The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English Read Free

concerning the Two Spirits’, the earliest Jewish theological tractate incorporated into the Community Rule, how to recognize a ‘son of Light’ or potential ‘son of Light’, and how to distinguish a ‘son of Darkness’ belonging to the lot of Belial (IQS III, 13-IV, 25; cf. below pp. 73-4).
    The hierarchy at Qumran was strict and formal, from the highest level to the lowest. Every sectary was inscribed in ‘the order of his rank’ (IQS VI, 22) - the term ‘order’ recurs constantly - and was obliged to keep to it in all the Community meetings and at table, an order that was subject to an annual review on the Feast of the Renewal of the Covenant. But after democratic beginnings, with the ‘Congregation’ (literally, ‘the Many’) as such forming the supreme authority, testified to by what seems to be the earliest formulation of the communal constitution (cf. 4QS b,d =4Q256, 258, see below, pp. 118-19), the ‘sons of Zadok, the priests’, members of the ‘Zadokite’ high-priestly family, took over the leadership of the sect. Although nothing to this effect is mentioned specifically in the Community Rule, the superior, the so-called mebaqqer or Guardian, was undoubtedly one of their number, as was the Bursar of the Congregation entrusted with handling the material affairs of the Community. In their hands lay the ultimate responsibility for decisions on matters of doctrine, discipline, purity and impurity, and in particular everything pertaining to ‘justice and property’ (IQS IX, 7). It was also a basic rule of the order that a priest was required to be present at any gathering of ten or more members who were meeting for debate, Bible study or prayer. A priest was to recite the grace before the common meals and to pronounce blessings (IQS VI, 3-8). He was no doubt the man whose duty it was to study the Law continually (IQS VI, 7; VIII, 11-12). One interesting feature of the priesthood at Qumran is that their precedence was absolute. In Judaism as represented by the Mishnah, the priest is superior to the Levite, the Levite to the Israelite, and the Israelite to the ‘bastard’ (Horayot III, 8). But the priestly precedence is conditional. If the ‘bastard’ is a man of learning, we are told, and the High Priest an uneducated ‘boor’, ‘the bastard ... precedes the High Priest’.
    The highest office was vested in the person of the Guardian, known also, it would seem, as the ‘Master’ ( maskil ) . The Community was to be taught by him how to live in conformity with the ‘Book of the Community Rule’ (IQS 1, 1; 4QS a =4Q255), and to be instructed by him in the doctrine of the ‘two spirits’. He was to preside over assemblies, giving leave to speak to those wishing to do so (IQS VI, 11-13). He was to assess, in concert with the brethren, the spiritual progress of the men in his charge and rank them accordingly (IQS VI, 21-2). And negatively, he was not to dispute with ‘the men of the Pit (or Dawn)’ and not to transmit to them the sect’s teachings (IQS IX, 16-17). Of the sect’s institutions, the most significant appears to have been the Council of the Community, or assembly of the Congregation. From a passage ordering all the members to sit in their correct places - ‘the Priests shall sit first, and the elders second, and all the rest of the people according to their rank’ (IQS VI, 8-9) - the Council seems to have been a gathering of the whole community, under the priests and men of importance, marshalled by the Levites, and with the Guardian at the head. But in another text, generally held to be an early section, the rule is as follows:
    In the Council of the Community there shall be twelve men and three Priests, perfectly versed in all that is revealed of the Law, whose works shall be truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness and humility. They shall