Includes "The Rule of the Community, Serekh ha-Yaḥad [in Hebrew, with 4Q255-264 comparisons]": [40] pages at end.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-309) and indexes.

Preliminary Material / A. Schofield -- Introduction / A. Schofield -- Chapter One. The Yaḥad and the Serekh: Where are we now? / A. Schofield -- Chapter Two. Textual analysis of S / A. Schofield -- Chapter Three. Serekh Ha-Yaḥad: Comparative evidence / A. Schofield -- Chapter Four. External evidence: The classical sources / A. Schofield -- Chapter Five. Archaeology of Qumran: The contemporary debate / A. Schofield -- Conclusions / A. Schofield -- Appendix A. Comparison of the penal codes / A. Schofield -- Bibliography / A. Schofield -- Index of modern authors / A. Schofield -- Index of ancient sources / A. Schofield.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

Since the discovery of the Cave 4 versions of The Community Rule (Serekh ha-Yaḥad or S), scholars have been perplexed about its complex textual history. This important charter material for the Dead Sea Scrolls’ authors appears in alternate versions—ones with contradictory legal prescriptions and opposing self-references—but exhibits no clear order of chronological development. Benefitting from the entire Qumran library now available to us, this book offers a new, broader model for reading S that better accounts for the long and diverse history behind the text. The resulting paradigm challenges the Qumrancentric lens through which many read the “sectarian texts” and offers a fresh way of thinking about sectarian community formation among the authors of the Scrolls.