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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
4Q394
4QMMT/The Halakhic Letter
Dead Sea Scrolls
[And concerning the] hides of cat[tle and the flocks, we think that ...] the vessels of [hide ...] [in order to bring] them into the tem[ple ...] [...] And also concerning the hid[es and the bones of the unclean animals; they shall not make,] [from their bones] and from their hides, handles of ves[sels. And also, concerning the carcasses] [of the] clean [animals]: the one who [carries] its carcass [shall not approach the holy purity]
Date: 160 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E. (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 C.E. (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 ..."
Neusner, Jacob, and Bruce D. Chilton
In Quest of the Historical Pharisees
(p. 412) Baylor University Press, 2007
* 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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