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4Q394

4QMMT/The Halakhic Letter

About this book

Fragment 8 iv

1 guilt they do not see. 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 11 that he chose from all the tribes of [Israel, for] Jerusalem is the head of 12 the [camps of Israel. And also concerning the planting of] fruit trees planted 13 [in the land of Israel: it is like first fruits, for the] priests. And the tithe of [cattle] 14 [and sheep is for the priests. And also concerning those with skin] disease, we 15 [say that they shall not come near the holy purity,] for [alone] 16 [they shall be, outside the house. And also it is written that from the time he] shaves [and washes]

Texts in conversation

4Q394 B:55-58 and Mishnah Yadayim 4:7

Dead Sea Scrolls, Torah and Temple Practices · Rabbinic

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Summary

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.

Passages

4Q394 8 iv 5

Dead Sea Scrolls, Torah and Temple Practices · 4QMMT/The Halakhic Letter
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
160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q394

Mishnah Yadayim 4:7

Rabbinic · Mishnah
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?
190–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mishnah Yadayim

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.
"... in the 1980s the position took a new form when Joseph Baumgarten noticed that a ruling in 4QMMT agreed with a position identified in the Mishnah as a Sadducean one. The scrolls passage is section B, lines 55–58 of A Sectarian Manifesto: [Co]ncerning streams of liquid, we have determined that they are not intrinsically [p]ure. Indeed, streams of liquid do not form a barrier between the impure and the pure. For the liquid of the stream and that in its receptacle become as one liquid. (WAC, 362) The meaning is that a liquid poured from a container that is ritually pure into one that is not conveys the ritual impurity through the liquid back to the pure container. Mishnah Yadayim 4:7, which records a series of points disputed between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, begins: 'The Sadducees say, We cry out against you, O ye Pharisees, for ye declare clean an unbroken stream of liquid. The Pharisees say, We cry out against you, O ye Sadducees, for ye declare clean a channel of water that flows from a burial ground.' The Pharisees clearly came to the opposite conclusion about the stream of liquid, saying that impurity was not conveyed through it, and they adduced an inconsistency they had found in the Sadducees, who failed to apply their own principle to a stream that flowed from an unclean source. This is a firm example of a legal stance in the scrolls that agrees with a Sadducean view ..."
James VanderKam and Peter Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002), 239–240.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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4Q394 8 iv 5 and Mishnah Yadayim 4:7

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