השורש נד"ב במגילות וצמיחתם של טקסטים קומראניים: בין לקסיקוגרפיה לתאולוגיה

and a study of the growth נדב This article combines a lexical scrutiny of the root and transformation of Qumranic texts. Both have significant implications for the study of the religious worldview of the Qumran sect, for—I contend, in contrast to the views of other scholars—this root does not have a connotation of ‘free will,’ nor is it related to the Temple cult. While many words and expressions in the Hebrew of the Second Temple
period are derived from biblical rather than contemporary usage, I argue that the basic meanings of nadav, ‘to urge,’ and hitnaddev, ‘respond (enthusiastically) to (someone’s) urging,’ do not belong to this category, but rather continue to be in natural usage from the early stages of biblical Hebrew to Qumran Hebrew. Ben Sira and the Qumran texts reflect, not a secondary usage of the biblical lexemes and expressions, but rather a continuity of the original meanings. The military usage of this root (‘those who respond eagerly to the exhortation to fight’) is discernible in 1QM, while the term mitnaddevim means ‘those who respond enthusiastically such urging’; but never should this root, as used in the Qumran texts, be translated as ‘volunteer’ or considered as reflecting notions of ‘free will’ as such. In two occurrences the word nedava in Qumran designates joining the sect; these occurrences add the taste of two biblical verses (Hos 14:5; Ps 119:108) to a well-known term.