Cutting the chord with the Familiar: what makes 4Q265 miscellaneous rules tick?

The document known by the siglum 4Q265 went for a long time under the name 4QSerekh Damascus. This original designation was chosen to capture the text's resemblance to the Rule of the Community (Hebrew Serekh ha-Yaḥad), on the one hand, and the Damascus Document on the other hand. Neither serekh (rule) - a term frequently found in headings in the Community Rule, the Damascus Document, and particularly the War Scroll - nor Damascus occur anywhere in the preserved fragments of 4Q265. This paper highlights the extent to which scholarship on 4Q265 to date has been relational. Its contents have been scrutinised in relation to three ‘major’ text such as the Community Rule, the Damascus Document and Jubilees with which they share affinities in the topics addressed. I propose a more holistic reading of the fragmentary pieces we have in front of us. Instead of effectively truncating the remaining text according to its relationship to other compositions my aim is to explore more fully connections between what are at first sight often arbitrary bedfellows.