This Index of the DSS in English Translation is based on T.Gaster's Index (1976\3) as expanded and modified over the years by R.Kraft, and more recently Jeffrey Pettis and Sigrid Peterson, with other specific contributions as noted below.
NOTE: The language used in parts of this index assumes a certain amount of homogeneity between the various "sectarian" DSS (thus terms such as "the community," "the brotherhood," and the like). This is due in large part to the history of this index (see below), and will be open to modification in future editions.
Theodore Gaster's Dead Sea Scriptures in English (Doubleday
1956\1, 1976\3) provides one of the earlier translations of the
DSS along with an "Analytical Index." The following is an
expanded and updated form of that index. The initial expansion came
mostly from the annotations of Robert Kraft in his work with the
DSS at the University of Pennsylvania. [Questions marks indicate
places in RAK's notes which were unclearto me.] The maincontemporary
translations used in the expansion and adaptation are
Florentino Garcia Martinez The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated:
the Qumran Texts in English (2nd ed),
G. Vermes The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (1997),
and Wise-Abegg-Cook,
The DSS identification scheme (coded titles) which is now relatively standard is set parallel to Gaster's somewhat idiosyncratic scheme in the listing of "topics" at the beginning of this index. It is to be referred to in using Gaster's system which has been left intact [for the time being] in the index proper. Subject headings have been added and removed at various places in the index, and particular subject areas of the index (e.g. "Officers," under GOVERNMENT OF THE COMMUNITY) have been expanded and annotated. [Note also the appended skeleton of Gaster's outline, followed by some topics from the index to Vermes' 4th edition (?).] [JP]
Frequently the positive participants in the DSS are identified simply as (the children of) "Israel" (e.g. 4QDD 4.2-4 "the chosen of Israel"; 4QDD 14.3f "priests...levites...children of Israel...proselyte") or sometimes "Judah" -- although separation from wicked ones of "Judah" is also frequent (e.g. 4QDD 4.11, 4QDD 8.3, 4QDD 20.27). See more specific associations below (e.g. "converts of Israel").
Hodayot 6.15; Hodayot 8.6; Hodayot 8.10
Based on Isa. 60.21. Cp. Mishnah, Sanhedrin 1; Psalms of Solomon,
14.3-4; Enoch 93.2,5,10; Odes of Solomon 38.18-21.
Mandaean: Right Ginza,II.iv. init.; Mand. Liturg., 149.190,
179ff., Apostolic Constitutions, init. Analogous is 'neophyte'
(KJV 'novice'; RSV 'recent convert) in I Tim. 3.6.
see 4QDD 2.11
CD-A 4.2
(of Israel) = 8.16 = 6.5 (see 15-16 "return"); pHos (GM 192)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(a) The Community is the recipient of God's 'truth'.
Hodayot 1.27; Hodayot 2.10; Hodayot 5.9; Hodayot 5.26; Hodayot 7.24: Hodayot 9.4; Hodayot 9.9; Hodayot 9.10; 1QM 13.9-10; 1QM 13.12.
In Jewish tradition, this 'truth' is often identified directly with Torah (Law). So, too, in Mandaean thought, 'truth (Kushta) is, virtually, mystic revelation; see W. Sundberg, Kushta (1953). In Samaritan, 'the Verity (Qushtah) is a common term for the Law.
See also: NT Rom 3.5; NT Rom 3.8; NT Gal 2.5.
(b) this 'truth' is an esoteric doctrine.
Hodayot 5.11; Hodayot 5.25; Hodayot 9.24; cp. 1QS 4.6
Cp. Odes of Solomon 8.11: 'Keep My secret, ye who are kept by it.' For a similar concept among the Mandaeans, cp. Right Ginza, iii.13; Brandt, Mand. Religion, 168.
Last updated April 24, 2000 by Sigrid Peterson