Whether Qumran was a Male Only Celibate Community or Not - Research Paper Example

? Whether Qumran was a male only celibate community or not Introduction The true identity of these people who lived in Qumran, producing the sectarian literature and lived in the caves is still a subject of major debate by historians and archeologist alike. Many hypotheses have been prompted some of which have tried to link the Qumran community to Essenes while others have decided that it is not acceptable to tie the scrolls discovered to the way of life of this community. However, Qumran was not a male dominated society according to my intuition and analysis of some documented evidence regarding this community and in reading the arguments of other scholars. Research that has been done on the scrolls indicated the there is a linkage between the site and building complex, found immediately below the cliffs, and the caves, including the scrolls found inside them. The evidence gathered also does establish the way of life for this community. Qumran has been depicted as an aristocratic society as is opposed to the sectarian center. The available data shows that the inhabitants of this area took part in some communal activities and certain rites of religion. We need to establish the way this site could have influenced the lives of the community of Qumran as seen in some sectarian scrolls (Magness 8-56). Qumran and the issue of celibacy based on scrolls Qumran was initially established due to the need for a fortress for Hasmonaean, according to some scholars. It was then given to the Essenes following the taking over of power by Herod and immediately rituals of sacrifices came to rise up to until the period when the Essenes did leave the sacrifice rituals. This led to the use of the site by the Essenes as a cult center and was fully occupied with temple affairs and sacrifices. The coming of Judea’s destruction by romans led to the Essenes abandoning the sacrifices. Central to the purposes of this study are the cemeteries. This is because they have been singled out as being pivotal to verifying that indeed the sect occupying this site was celibate. In the main cemetery, there are 1100 graves that have been discovered marked with piles of stones and are neatly arranged. Twenty-six graves were excavated at the time of Jordanian occupation and found to have only males. However, female and children’s graves were identified outside the main cemetery. Other graves from secondary cemetery on the north side of Khirbet Qumran were excavated and out of the two that were opened, there was one male and one female. Another cemetery was located on the south of Wadi Qumran and noted to have thirty graves. One of these graves was found to have remains of a woman and three were for children. One question though still remains as to how this community would not have practiced celibacy when there is evidence of misappropriate male numbers. It is possible that Qumran did serve as the center for studies for the sectarians and thus the men did leave their families away to go for studies at Qumran. To that extend, we could argue that there was only a limited number of people who decided to fully live there and run family life hence the small number of women and children discovered (Charlesworth 213–33). It is true that we cannot dismiss the eventual emergence of the Essenes in the Qumran community. The only fact is that scholars who try to push for a celibacy thought as far as this community is concerned seem to have some inherent interest that could be alien to the practice of the mainstream Judaism. Even if we do tie the community to the existence of Essenes, we still reach a point where there is no congruency in our argument based on the two when it comes to the topic of marriage and celibacy. From the studies I have done on papers presented on the same issue, I find that the depiction of this community as one that had a total rejection of marriage is not founded on strong grounds since there have been records of those Essenes who were not ready nor willing to abandon marriage for the sake of celibacy and thus took upon the ‘propagation of the race’ as one of their major duty or function in life. The scrolls in Damascus do highlight the rules of sectarian practice in relation to marriage issues and the Messianic Rule regards matrimony as a very normal point and milestone in the life of a young man who is maturing in the Israelite’s community (Yigael and Schiffman 13-24; Murphy-O’Connor 222). Interestingly, Cave 4 does praise women and depicts them as having the qualities of ‘intelligence and understanding’. It thus paints women as the ‘daughters of truth’ and ‘sisters’. The joyous depiction of women and the overwhelming lauds given to them does point out the important roles that women did play in the Qumran community and sect. logically; women are seen as vital for continuation of human race. In the first place, celibate practice would have meant that a society is created devoid of any neither women influence nor existence. The minds of the settlers as depicted in the scrolls would not have been with any indication of praising a woman. The women would not also have existed and their role in community would not have been established (Flusser 252–63). From the literature available and borrowing from other sources, I tend to think that there might have been a culture of exclusion whereby women were not considered in many practices that took place including burial rituals. For that reason, the women and children might have been buried outside the main cemetery which was exclusively meant for male burials. This is because even the role of women in Church was still questioned and women were not allowed to stand in front of men in synagogues, in accordance with the Jewish culture (Cook 177-190). If this thought could be extended to Qumran, then possibilities of excluding women and children from being buried in the main cemeteries due to cultural and religious reasons exist. I am therefore; still of the opinion that celibacy was not a male practice in this Qumran community (Schiffman 23-76). Still, the eventual coming up of celibacy of Essenes is not easy to dismiss based on some findings. The affinity of Qumran to Essenes helps add flesh to the argument held by the scholars who believe that it was a celibate society. However, continued evidence from the scrolls show otherwise. We see a vivid denunciation of the polygamous practice in the scrolls. Remarriage after divorce also seems to be illustrated when the scrolls say that ‘they take two women in their lifetime’. One wonders then if celibacy was the order of the day, why would the subject of marriage and marriage rules be so profoundly expressed in these scrolls. How then did these restrictions have come to bring together the exegetes of Qumran with the law of Pentateuch which did openly condone divorce and the practice of polygamy? The legality of remarriage and polygamy is well established (Baumgarten 13–35). Interestingly, we see that the idea of procreation was seriously held high by the Essenes who took it as the only approved and legitimate justification for having a marital life. They even ended up avoiding any form of intercourse during pregnancy and thus were permanently separated from their wives once the wives became pregnant. From the scrolls, men and women depicts frequent exchange of blessings between a man and woman, which could be a depiction of the two exchanging vows to each other. However, when we take a look at the atmosphere, setting and those present at the scene, zeqenim and seqenot, we find that the kind of blessings do suggest a couple of old age that had already been married and were now thinking about their future in the Qumran Yahad. It could be argued that this exchange of blessings was done for those men and women, who at old age still did not have children and were now confiding in each other that from henceforth they will live in total celibacy, thus sacrificing their individual relationships to the much needed and greater communal unity. Conclusion Indeed the subject of Qumran and celibacy will still elicit much heated debate as more researchers come forward with new findings and allegations. What I still do not get convinced over is the fact that a community which upholds women in its writings, could still abhor the very essence of life, marriage, and resort to unconditional celibacy. More research still has to be done. Works Cited Baumgarten Joseph M., Studies in Qumran Law (Leiden: E.J. Brill, the Netherlands, 1977), 13–35, Accessed on 6th October 2011, from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=k8kUAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Studies+in+Qumran+Law&hl=en&ei=0RiVTpjAIcjRrQf4v5SgBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Charlesworth J.H., ‘The Origin and Subsequent History of the Authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Four Transitional Phases among the Qumran Essenes’, Revue de Qumran 10 (1980), 213–33, who cites S.P. Brock’s study of the account by Dionysios Bar Salibi. Flusser D., ‘The Dead Sea Sect and pre-Pauline Christianity’, Scripta Hierosolymitana 4 (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1958), pp.252–63 Magness Jodi, The archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Cambridge, 2003: 8-56 Murphy-O’Connor J., ‘A Literary Analysis of Damascus Document VI, 2–VIII, 3’, Revue Biblique 78 (1971), 222 Schiffman Lawrence H., The Archaeology of Qumran: Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia 1994, pp.23-76 Yigael Yadin and Schiffman Lawrence H. (ed), Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls: the New York University conference in memory of, JSOT Press, Sheffield 1990, p.13-24. Accessed on 6th October 2011, from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=XaXXAAAAMAAJ&q=Archaeology+and+History+in+the+Dead+Sea+Scrolls&dq=Archaeology+and+History+in+the+Dead+Sea+Scrolls&hl=en&ei=HxqVTtv2HInHtAbvgrT8BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA Cook Edward M. Solving the mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls: new light on the Bible, (Zondervan, 1994), pp.177-190 Read More