Bibliography
| Title: Recent Qumran Discoveries and Halakhah in the Hellenistic-Roman Period Secondary Title: Jewish civilization in the Hellenistic-Roman period Pages: 147-158 Type: Book Section Year: 1991 Abstract: Fitzmyer, Joseph A.: "The study of pre-Christian Jewish halakhah has been greatly aided by the publication of the Zadokite Document, and now by the Temple Scroll and 4QMMT, which have to be related to that halakhah. B. confines himself here to already published texts. First, 4Q513 4:2-5 (DJD 7. 289-90), is to be interpreted in the light of mishnaic regulations about the date of the Omer offering (m. Men. 10:3). Second, 4QMMT (as cited by J. T. Milik in DJD 3. 225), which mentions mwcqwt, "streams" (which may transmit impurity), has to be interpreted in light of the Sadducean-Pharisaic dispute m. Yad. 4:7. Possibly, the mishnaic term ceduqim cited in this passage refers not to Sadducees, but to adherents of the Qumran sect, "another sort of cidwqym." Third, another regulation in 4QMMT about +ebûl yôm (reported by J. Strugnell and E. Qimron) should be interpreted in light of m. Par. 3:7. Fourth, 11QTemple 56:3-4 sheds light on a Pharisaic-Sadducee dispute noted in b. Kid. 66a and Josephus, Ant. 13.296-97. These examples show that the Mishnah is a repository of reliable information about ancient halakhah. On the other hand, 4Q511 frg. 35 also reveals that the Qumran community considered itself a temple made of human beings (cf. Ephesians 2). The visionaries of Qumran were thus concerned both with minutiae of the law and with eschatology; that concern is a precedent in religious history to be reckoned with." Keywords: Qumran |