Texts in Conversation
4QMMT and the Sadducees in Mishnah Yadayim both rule that a poured liquid stream connects upper and lower vessels for impurity. The Pharisees disagree, and the Mishnah records this as a formal complaint between the two groups.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q394 8 iv 5
4QMMT/The Halakhic Letter
Dead Sea Scrolls, Torah and Temple Practices
2 And also concerning the deaf, who have not heard statute and judgment and purity, and have not 3 heard the judgments of Israel: for whoever has not seen and has not heard does not 4 know how to act. Yet they come to the purity of the sanctuary. 5 And also concerning streams of liquid: we say that there is no 6 purity in them. And also streams of liquid do not separate the impure 7 from the pure, for the moisture of the streams and of what receives them is like them, 8 one moisture. And one must not bring dogs into the holy camp, for they 9 eat some of the bones of the sanctuary with the flesh on them. For 10 Jerusalem is the holy camp, and it is the place
Date: 160–60 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Mishnah Yadayim 4:7
Mishnah
Rabbinic
The Sadducees say: we complain against you, Pharisees, that you declare an uninterrupted flow of a liquid to be clean. The Pharisees say: we complain against you, Sadducees, that you declare a stream of water which flows from a burial-ground to be clean. The Sadducees say: we complain against you, Pharisees, that you say, my ox or donkey which has done injury is liable, yet my male or female slave who has done injury is not liable. Now if in the case of my ox or my donkey for which I am not responsible if they do not fulfill religious duties, yet I am responsible for their damages, in the case of my male or female slave for whom I am responsible to see that they fulfill mitzvot, how much more so that I should be responsible for their damages? They said to them: No, if you argue about my ox or my donkey which have no understanding, can you deduce from there anything concerning a male or female slave who do have understanding? So that if I were to anger either of them and they would go and burn another person's stack, should I be liable to make restitution?
Date: 190–230 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... three specific rulings in 4QMMT (Miqsat Ma'aseh ha-Torah) are attributed to Sadducees in the Mishnah: the red heifer could be burned only by priests who were in a state of complete ritual purity [4QMMT B:13-17/m. Parah 3:7]; non-kosher animals' bones were considered impure [4QMMT B:21-23/m. Yadayim 4:6]; and liquid poured from a pure vessel into an impure one rendered the former impure [4QMMT B:55-58/m. Yad. 4:7/m. Toh. 8:9]. In m. Yadayim 4:6 and 4:7, the contrary positions are assigned to Pharisees ..."
Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton, eds., In Quest of the Historical Pharisees (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007), 412.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
1 && show(index - 1)"
@keydown.right.window="open && comments.length > 1 && show(index + 1)">
User Comments
,