THE RELIGIOUS LAWS OF THE QUMRAN COMMUNIT Y

The Qumran Community, often defined as an ''apocalyptic sect'': is non etheless remarkable for the importance it attributes to the law. Qumra nian laws are either founded on the exegesis of the Torah, or presente d in an apodictic fashion, without any scriptural justification. As wi th biblical law, Qumranian laws are revealed. These revelations are pe riodically renewed, guarded secret and transmitted only within the com munity. Contrary to the Pharisees whose halakhic prescriptions were ut tered and transmitted by nominally designated wisemen, Qumranian laws remain anonymous. While the Pharisees distinguish between the oral and the written law the notion of oral law is unknown to the Qumranians j ust as it is rejected by the Sadduceans. However the similarities betw een Qumranian and Sadducean prescriptions, in particular with respect to laws of purity, do not allow us to take the Qumranians for Sadducea ns; the similarities rather indicate a meeting point of two distinct a pproaches: the first apply strickly within a separatist community, whi le the application of the second are reserved for the Temple and its r ituals alone. On the other hand the comparison of the Qumranian halakh a with essenian practicies confirms down to the last derail the identi fication of the Essenians with the Qumran Community. The element of ch ange in the conception of the law introduced by the belief in a progre ssive revelation must be interpreted with an eschatological perspectiv e: the function of the Messiah or Messiahs being not to abrogate the l aw but to reveal its full significance. As for the origins of the reli gious laws of Qumran, we must again look to eschatology to understand the extreme momism of the community could be interpreted in the light of its millenary and messianic ideology.