Setting aside burial places in the land of Israel: legal innovation in the purity law of the Temple Scroll (11QT48:10-14)

• In Event: Law, Culture and the Bible

Abstract

In the section on the purity law of the Temple Scroll(11QT 45-51), the scroll provides detailed legislation that regulates the places for burial and cemeteries(11QT 48:10-14), highlighting the significance of maintaining purity within the land of Israel. Although the law of burial has no corresponding law in the Pentateuch, it correlates with many biblical legal texts in the Pentateuch. It demonstrates 11QT's hermeneutical strategies of continuing the biblical legal tradition while innovatively creating new legislation highlighting purity issues. This paper thus provides a hermeneutical reading of the law of the burial as an exemplar of 11QT's creativity in composing new scripture.
The paper discusses this law’s compositional practices and its hermeneutical innovations based on the biblical laws in various aspects: First, the law of burial parallels with the law of refuge cities in Num 35 while shows major innovations. Through remodelling the law of refuge cities, the scroll repurposed the law of refuge cities into the purity context, stressing the importance of preserving the land's purity. Second, by contrasting with the abominable practices of foreigners, the law employs rhetorical strategies to stress the distinctions between Israelites and gentiles. By aligning the burial issues with idolatry, the law of burial serves as one of the identity markers of Israel distinguishing from the foreigners. Third, the paper analyses the similar employments of the word “place” in the altar law and the sacrificial law. It shows the application of the idea of centralization into burial practices as a scribal innovation that continues the legal tradition in the Hebrew bible.
By drawing upon 11QT's resonances with various biblical legal texts, the paper shows how 11QT constructs a new system of ritual, purity and burial practices through its hermeneutical strategies. The law of burial reflects 11QT’s ideological concern for purity as marking Israel’s identity by stressing the idea of “separation” between pure and impure, Israel and gentiles. It also shows the hermeneutical balance between the continuation of the scriptural tradition and the creative composition of new scripture. Therefore, the paper further illuminates the issue of scriptural authority and divine pseudepigraphy.

Author

• Wenyue Qiang, University of Oxford