The (Im)purity Levels of Communal Meals within the Qumran Movement

Scholars usually take for granted that the sectarian members of the Qumran movement ate their common meals in full purity at a level that is often compared to that of the priests serving in the temple. This assumption rests on the interpretation of hatohorah, “the purity,” as pertaining to common me...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wassen, Cecilia 1962- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2016]
In: Journal of ancient Judaism
Year: 2016, Volume: 7, Issue: 1, Pages: 102-122
RelBib Classification:AG Religious life; material religion
HD Early Judaism
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Description
Summary:Scholars usually take for granted that the sectarian members of the Qumran movement ate their common meals in full purity at a level that is often compared to that of the priests serving in the temple. This assumption rests on the interpretation of hatohorah, “the purity,” as pertaining to common meals. But a careful study of a range of texts, including the important Tohorot A, leads to a more nuanced picture. Accordingly, it is important to distinguish between the common, everyday meals of the movement and the special meals. Whereas a mild level of impurity of the participants was accepted at the ordinary type of communal meals, special meals required purity. Even at these pure meals, there were variations concerning the required level of purity depending on the occasion.
ISSN:2196-7954
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of ancient Judaism
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.13109/jaju.2016.7.1.102