Damascus Document - CD and The Community Rule

CD and The Community Rule

The document contains a reference to a cryptic figure called the Teacher of Righteousness, whom some of the Qumran scrolls treat as a figure from their past, and others treat as a figure in their present, and others still as a figure of the future. This Teacher of Righteousness features prominently in the Damascus Document, but not at all in the Community Rule, another document found amongst the Qumran scrolls, suggesting a difference in the situation during the writing of each. One of the major reasons this person is so significant is because he also appears in a number of other texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of these other scrolls where he is mentioned are the Habakkuk Pesher (numerous times), Micah Pesher (once), Psalms Pesher and also 4Q172. The most interesting scroll is one where he is not mentioned, that being the Rule of the Community. He is first introduced in the Damascus Document by discussing the 390 years after the fall of Jerusalem: “And God observed their deeds, that they sought Him with a whole heart, and He raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart.” Scholars have believed that he was a priest, and leader of this covenant community. There are other variations in the text that are also thought to be him. These include: “the teacher”, “the unique teacher” and “the interpreter of the law. The Damascus Document describes the group amongst whom the Document was created as having been leaderless for 20 years before the Teacher of Righteousness established his rule over the group. Usually historians date the Teacher to circa 150 BCE, since the document states that he arrived 390 years (a period which, however, is unlikely to be precise) after the Babylonian Exile.

There is a high degree of shared terminology and legal rulings between the Damascus Document and the Community Rule, including terms like sons of light, and their penal codes. The fragment 4Q265 appears to have come from a hybrid edition of both documents.

The textual relationship between the Damascus Document and Community Rule is not completely resolved, though there is a general agreement that they have some evolutionary connection. Some suspect that the Community Rule is the original text that was later altered to become the Damascus Document, others that the Damascus Document was redacted to become the Community Rule, a third group argues that the Community Rule was created as a utopian ideal rather than a practical replacement for the Damascus Document, and still others that believe the Community Rule and Damascus Document were written for different types of communities, one enclosed and the other open.