Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DAMASCUS DOCUMENT

(CD)

A sectarian text preserved in two medieval manuscripts, discovered in the geniza of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo by Solomon Schechter in 1896. Several fragmentary copies were later found at Qumran, indicating the text originated in the 1st or 2nd century b.c.e.

Because the text emphasizes the sole legitimacy of the priestly lineage of Zadok, the high priest under David and Solomon, it was first called the Zadokite Fragments. Because it alludes to a sojourn of the sect in Damascus it is also called the Damascus Document. Abbreviated CD (Cairo Damascus), the text from Cairo is included in collections of Dead Sea Scroll texts.

The text consists of two parts: Admonition and Laws. The Admonition recounts the history of the sect — how it separated from Israel to the wilderness and was eventually led by the Teacher of Righteousness. It also contains exhortations to the members of the sect, designated as the Sons of Light, to separate themselves from transgressors of the law. The Laws contain regulations governing the community, including entrance into the sect, purification, tithes, Sabbath, and punishment of transgressors.

This document shows many affinities with other Qumran texts, in particular the Rule of the Community (1QS). Following Josephus’ comment that the Essenes had two types of communities (BJ 2.119-61), many scholars believe the Rule of the Community governed the specific group of Essenes living at Qumran while the Zadokite Fragments directed those who lived in sectarian communities spread throughout Israel. How and when the text was transmitted from the Qumran community to the Jewish community in Cairo is not certain.

Bibliography. J. M. Baumgarten and D. R. Schwartz, Damascus Document, War Scroll, and Related Documents, vol. 2 in The Dead Sea Scrools, ed. J. Charlesworth (Louisville, 1995); S. Schechter, Documents of Jewish Sectaries, 1: Fragments of a Zadokite Work (1910, repr. New York, 1970).

David R. Seely

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DAMASCUS DOCUMENT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)