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4QMMT rules that hides and bones of unclean animals may not be made into vessels for Temple use. Mishnah Yadayim attributes the same position to the Sadducees in a dispute over whether animal bones convey impurity.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q397 1-2 1
4QMMT/The Halakhic Letter
Dead Sea Scrolls, Torah and Temple Practices
1 […] … And also concerning the hides [and the bones of the unclean animal: one must not make] 2 [from their bones] or from their hides handles for [vessels. And also concerning the hide of the carcass of] 3 [the] clean [animal]: whoever carries it, its carcass, [shall not approach the purity of the sanctuary] 4 [… And] also concerning the … which they […]
Date: 160–60 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Mishnah Yadayim 4:6
Mishnah
Rabbinic
The Sadducees say: we complain against you, Pharisees, because you say that the Holy Scriptures defile the hands, but the books of Homer do not defile the hands. Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai said: Have we nothing against the Pharisees but this? Behold they say that the bones of a donkey are clean, yet the bones of Yohanan the high priest are unclean. They said to him: according to the affection for them, so is their impurity, so that nobody should make spoons out of the bones of his father or mother. He said to them: so also are the Holy Scriptures according to the affection for them, so is their uncleanness. The books of Homer which are not precious do not defile the hands.
Date: 190–230 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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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.
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