Bibliography
| Title: 4QMMT and Second Temple Jewish Society Secondary Title: Legal Texts and Legal Issues. Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies Pages: 89-108 Type: Book Section Year: 1997 Abstract: Fitzmyer, Joseph A. in: OTA 21.2 (1998), 303: "Because some have claimed that 11QTemple and 4QMMT treat of topics that seem to agree with Sadducean halakah and so have queried the relation of these texts to a certain form of Jewish society, G. examines 4QMMT anew to situate the document in relation to ancient Jewish society. In part I he catalogues five halakôt of 4QMMT (Tebûl yôm; nswq/hmwsqwt; animal bones; skins of animals slaughtered outside the Temple; calendar and counting sabû'ot) and their relationships to other Qumran texts, and he disputes between Sadducees ad Pharisees in Tannaitic literature. G. find that of the seventeen halakhic topics treated in 4QMMT only two can be considered as having a possible relation to Sadducean teaching; "though by no means as certain as often presented". So "the Sadducean identification seems to have slithered from our grasp". In part II, G. further examine the Sadducean hypothesis, stressing how little we know with certainty about Pharisees and Sadducees. He summarizes what is known from Josephus and early rabbinic literature, and then shows how some of the regulations in 4QMMT "seem to disagree with the Sadducees of the Greek sources". Moreover, what is meant by "Sadducean" in recent scholarly discussion is not univocal or clear. G. regard the Essene connection as "still the most widely held identification" and find "remarkable coincidences" between the classical sources about them and the Qumran sectarian texts (especially 1QS and CD). In part III, G. draws his conclusions about Jewish society. He finds that halakhic regulations 4QMMT have little connection with the Sdwqym of Tannaitic literature, or with what is known of the Pharisees n pre-70 Jewish society". |