The Long Text of the Serekh as Crisis Literature

The rich manuscript tradition attested by the Community Rule from Qumran and its implications for our assessment of the relationship of the texts to the movement associated for a time with Khirbet Qumran have been the subject of vigorous debate in recent scholarship. This article offers a fresh assessment of the Community Rule manuscripts and their relationship to Khirbet Qumran. Rather than focusing on the remarkable differences between 1QS V-IX and 4QS close attention is paid here to 1QS I-IV; X-XI // 4QS - the framework of what can be called the ‘Long Text’ of S as represented particularly by 1QS and 4Q256 (Sb). A close reading of those parts of the Long Text of S that make it long reveals a heightened sense of theological reflection in a movement with a considerable history and internal challenges. We note further that the palaeographical dates of the copies of the Long Text cluster chronologically in the mid-Hasmonean period (125-75 BCE) suggesting that it is this period – aimed at overcoming a crisis of commitment in an established group – that is more likely associated with a move to the site of Qumran than community origins as often presupposed.