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4QMMT requires that all who handle the red heifer’s ashes be fully pure at sunset, not merely immersed. Mishnah Parah records that the Pharisees deliberately had a merely-immersed priest perform the rite to counter the Sadducean position.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q394
4QMMT/The Halakhic Letter
Dead Sea Scrolls
priests should oversee in this matter in such a way that the [sons of Aaron] do not lead the people into error. And also in what pertains to the purity of the red heifer in the sin offering: that whoever slaughters it and whoever burns it and whoever collects the ash and whoever sprinkles the [water of] purification, all these ought to be pure at sunset, so that whoever is pure sprinkles the impure. For the sons of [Aaron] ought [to be ...]
Date: 160 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Mishnah Parah 3:7
Mishnah
Rabbinic
If the cow refused to go out, they may not take out with it a black one lest people say, "They slaughtered a black cow" nor another red [cow] lest people say, "They slaughtered two." Rabbi Yose says: it was not for this reason but because it is said "And he shall bring her out" by herself. The elders of Israel used to go first by foot to the Mount of Olives, where there was a place of immersion. The priest that was to burn the cow was deliberately made unclean on account of the Sadducees so that they should not be able to say, "It can be done only by those on whom the sun has set."
Date: 190-230 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... According to L.H. Schiffman, G. Blidstein and others, the case of the tebul yom is dealt with in 4QMMT B 13.17, 59-67. This technical term does not appear in our letter; it is taken from the Mishnah Tractate Tebul Yom. It designates the man ‘who has immersed himself during the day’ (see b. Yeb. 74b), because he had become unclean and therefore cleansed himself through a ritual bath before sunset. The passage Num. 19.7-10 was interpreted in a different way: the Pharisees of the Mishnah related the term ‘ish tahor (Num. 19.9) to the tebul yom in Num. 19.7 and concluded: he is clean after immersion (m. Par. 3.7). 4QMMT and the Sadducees of the Mishnah were more correct than the Hakhamim of the Pharisees. For the stereotyped decision at the end of Num. 19.7 and 19.8 is quite clear: ‘unclean (tame’) is (the priest) till evening.’ The meaning is purposely changed in Pseudo-Jonathan, where the phrase qodom tibuleh (‘before his immersion’) is inserted (Num. 19.7, 8, 10); this means that the ritual bath renders the tebul yom pure right away ..."
Betz, Otto
"The Qumran Halakhah Text Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah (4QMMT) and Sadducean, Essene, and Early Pharisaic Tradition" in Beattie, D.R.G., and M.J. McNamara (eds.) The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
(pp. 185-188) Sheffield Academic Press, 1994
* 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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