Temple scroll
The Temple Scroll is an ancient Jewish text that was found several times among the Dead Sea Scrolls :
- 11QT a (11Q19) is a particularly high-quality copy (beautiful writing, fine parchment) and with 66 columns the longest surviving Qumran scroll;
- 11QT b (11Q20)
- further fragments of this text: 11Q21 and maybe also 4Q365a and 4Q524.
Finding 11QT a
Bedouins had discovered cave 11 in February 1956 and cleared it out completely, including the roll 11QT a . It came into the possession of the antique dealer "Kando" in Bethlehem. When Israeli troops conquered the West Bank in 1967, Yigael Yadin arranged for a detachment to raid Kando's store (who later received financial compensation). The temple scroll was found and confiscated. It was tucked in a shoebox under the floorboards, a bad place to keep because it had been badly damaged by the cleaning water that seeped into it.
The scroll is presented today along with other Qumran writings in the Shrine of the Book , part of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem .
content
The text, the beginning of which is lost, presents itself as a direct speech from God and thus surpasses the Torah of Moses . The temple scroll systematically arranged halachic substances, which are thematized in various places in the Torah:
- Columns III to XIII: the temple in Jerusalem with its altar;
- Columns XIII to XXIX: festival calendar with otherwise unknown festivals;
- Columns XXX to XLV: the courtyards of the temple;
- Columns XLV to LI: Purity Laws;
- Columns LII to LXVI: mixed bids.
Relation to the biblical text of the Torah
Yadin saw a collage of biblical texts in the temple scroll, especially since it is often closely related to the Masoretic text and merely reformulated it as a divine speech. The majority of scholars followed him in this, although the temple scroll also processed extra-biblical sources. It is unclear whether the authors of the temple scroll intended to replace the Torah or whether they wanted to update the biblical text for their time. The problem discussed under the keyword Rewritten Scripture (a term coined by Géza Vermes : Rewritten Bible ) also arises with other contemporary texts, e.g. B. the anniversary book .
Dating and provenance of the text
Many researchers suspect that the final editing of the temple scroll took place in the early Hasmonean period (2nd half of the 2nd century BC), because they interpret the royal law (columns LVI to LIX) as a criticism of the Hasmoneans . But that is not mandatory.
Yadin saw a script of the Essenes in the temple scroll , a view that is hardly held today. One suspects cautiously that behind the temple scroll there were circles that were connected with the groups from which the Jachad later emerged.
Research history
The publication of the Temple Scroll by Yadin on Ivrit in 1977 was a turning point in the history of Qumran research . It was noticed that this extensive text is entirely devoted to Halacha . "To put it bluntly, thirty years of Christianizing reading of the scrolls is now followed by an epoch of 'rejudaization', a return of Qumran to Jewish studies." In addition, the temple scroll was the first large scroll that many researchers doubted whether the Essenes were its originator.
literature
- Yigael Yadin (Ed.): The Temple Scroll. 4 volumes, Jerusalem 1983.
- Yigael Yadin: The Temple Scroll. 1985 (German translation).
- Johann Maier : The Temple Scroll from the Dead Sea and the "New Jerusalem". 3rd edition, 1997.
- Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra : Qumran: The Dead Sea Texts and Ancient Judaism (UTB 4681). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2016, ISBN 9783825246815