Community Rule

The so-called Manual of Discipline ( formerly of Discipline ) is an ancient Jewish Scriptures in the Hebrew language, which was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Galt them of the older research as a sort founding document of the Qumran community, its literary character and its function are highly controversial today.

Description of textual witnesses

The most important surviving manuscript of the work is with the siglum 1QS (1Q calls the locality Cave 1, S stands for the abbreviation of the Hebrew title " Serekh ha - Jachad " [ see below ] or for " Discipline " ) referred. This scroll is in good condition, only at the beginning of the work and at the bottom is missing some words due to damage. A total of eleven columns text is available. Since the manuscript 1QS offers the longest text of the Manual of Discipline, it serves as a basis for research at work, although attested in other manuscripts text forms may represent older stages of text development.

Based on comparisons of forms of writing the manuscript is dated to the first quarter of the first century BC. The orthography has the typical for the Qumran plene - sensitive, especially in short words are Matres lectionis: Biblical לא ( " no", " no " ) is generally written לוא, כי ( " because" ) mostly כיא. The suffix of the second person masculine singular form has regularly כה - instead of the biblical ך -.

Probably belonged to Scroll 1QS originally other works, however, were found as individual parts. They are called " Community Rule" ( 1QSa ) and as " (rule of ) blessings " ( 1QSb ) and are probably formed a kind of appendix to the community generally. סרך היחד - - On the back of the Community rule, the Hebrew title is obtained, which can also be found at the beginning of 1QS and can therefore be understood as its headline. From him, the name is derived from a village rule.

Other fragments of a total of ten different manuscripts of the " Manual of Discipline " were found in cave four ( sigla 4Q255 -264 or Gemeinderegela -j), and two tiny fragments in the cave five ( 5Q11 ). The manuscripts from cave four partly offer widely differing versions of the text, which may allow insights into the genesis of the work.

Content

The following brief table of contents based on the column count of the manuscript 1QS. The column is designated by a Roman numeral, an Arabic number represents the line:

  • 0.1 I -III, 12 instructions for the admission of new members in " the covenant " and for a to be celebrated yearly festival of the renewal of the covenant
  • III ,13 -IV, 26 so-called "two- spirits - teaching": dualistic conception of ghosts and Sons of Light against the spirits of darkness and sons of iniquity
  • V ,1 -IX, 25: rules on the organization of the community, in particular a list of penalties
  • IX ,26 - Xi, 22 Instructions for prayer and a final Psalm

Relation to other texts from Qumran

Special close, the community rule " Damascus Document " on. Their only fragmentarily preserved conclusion has over large parts of the same text as the community generally. Similarities are also reflected in the structure of the work and the terminology. However, there are also important differences in the arrangements and the choice of words. On conspicuous feature is the fact that the Damascus Document - like the Community Rule -. The term עדה used when the group is mentioned, the community usually יחד contrast Substituting a creation or processing of both fonts in a community advance so could be drawn from the changes drawn on a development within this community.

Text editions and translations

  • Philip Alexander; Géza Vermes: Qumran Cave 4.XIX: 4Q Serekh Ha - Yahad and Two Related Texts. In: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 26 Oxford 1998.
  • Eduard Lohse (ed.): The texts from Qumran. Hebrew and German with the Masoretic punctuation, translation, introduction and notes. Darmstadt 21971, 1-43.283-285. ISBN 3-466-20067-9
  • Preben Wernberg- Møller: The Manual of Discipline. Translated and Annotated with an Introduction. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 1 Leiden 1957.
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