4QMMT

4QMMT ( or MMT), also known as the Halakhic Letter, is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were discovered at Qumran in the West Bank. The manuscript is mainly concerned with the issue of the purity of liquid streams, a matter of great debate between the Pharisees and the Sadducees in later rabbinic texts.

Originally provisionally designated as 4QMishn (Mishnah), it was later renamed as 4QMMT (Miqsat Ma’ase ha-Torah or "Some Precepts of the Law") by Elisha Qimron who, with John Strugnell, were the manuscript's editors. Strugnell and Qimron have dated the script (or writing) on the fragments as late Hasmonean to Middle Herodian, which places them between the early 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD.The editors believe that at that time the fragments now comprising 4QMMT were copied from six individual manuscripts into one. [http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale/staff/Head/4QMMT.htm]

4QMMT was found in Cave 4 at Qumran on six fragmented manuscripts (4Q394, 4Q395, 4Q396, 4Q397, 4Q398, 4Q399). These manuscripts were found between the years 1953-1959 and today they are held at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. From 1959 4QMMT was worked on alone by John Strugnell. In 1979 he co-opted Hebrew scholar Elisha Qimron on to the team to assist him in completing it. [http://biblical-studies.ca/dss/introductions/4QMMT.html]

Content

In 1984 at the Biblical archaeology Conference in Jerusalem, Qimron stated that 4QMMT represented copies of a letter written by Qumran's 'Teacher of Righteousness' and his colleagues to his rival, the 'Wicked Priest' and his supporters. The purpose of the letter was to spell out the differences between the two parties and to summon their opponents to an amendment of life.

4QMMT commences with a detailed, year-long calendar, a 364 day solar calendar. In the sequel the author presents twenty-two points of law on which the two groups differ. These points oppose rabbinic or Pharisaic views and coincide with Essene, and in some cases, Sadducean positions. This led some scholars to the conclusion that the community at Qumran had withdrawn from Jerusalem in around 150 BC following major disagreements between themselves and the Jewish authorities concerning Biblical interpretation and religious practices.

Interpretation

While part of 4QMMT seems to be addressed to priests at the Temple in Jerusalem, the third section is addressed to a respected individual, whose honesty and integrity are acknowledged by the author, and who encourages him to study carefully 'the book of Moses and the books of the Prophets and David.' He also refers to the blesses and curses on the Israelite kings and asks the recipient to remember their actions, giving the impression that the recipient may himself be a Judaean monarch. Almost certainly a Hasmonean ruler is being addressed. There is no formal breach between the two, only disagreement, giving rise to the supposition that 4QMMT was written at a time of dispute between the Scrolls community and the Judaean political and religious establishment in Jerusalem, possibly concerning laws covering purity. Some scholars believe that this section is a letter from the Teacher of Righteousness to the Wicked Priest, believed by many to be Jonathan Maccabaeus or his brother Simon [http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale/staff/Head/4QMMT.htm]

Other scholars have seen in 4QMMT evidence of having been written solely by the Sadduccees, one of the major religious factions in Judea at that time.

Since its publication in 1994, there has been much debate as to whether 4QMMT really is a letter, and if so written by who to whom; whether it is actually a Sadducean manuscript, or even if the document has been properly reconstructed, a charge laid by Strugnell against Qimron.

The text was also at the centre of a legal dispute in the early 1990s when Qimron successfully sued Hershel Shanks of the Biblical Archaeology Society and others for publishing his researches into 4QMMT without his permission. [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/dead_sea_scrolls/index.html?query=SHANKS,%20HERSHEL&field=per&match=exact]

See also

*4Q107
*4Q108
*4Q175
*Tanakh at Qumran

External links

* [http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale/staff/Head/4QMMT.htm 4QMMT]
* [http://qumranica.blogspot.com/2005/03/4qmmt-abstract.html 4QMMT Abstract on Qumranica.com]
* [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/225/texts/4QMMT.htm Fragments of 4QMMT]
* [http://biblical-studies.ca/dss/introductions/4QMMT.html 4QMMT on the Biblical Studies website]
* [http://www.bib-arch.org/deadseascrolls/bswbDSSSubPage.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=20&Issue=6&ArticleID=6 4QMMT published in BAS]