La loi religieuse de la communauté de Qoumrân

The Qumran Community, often defined as an "apocalyptic sect", is nonetheless remarkable for the importance it attributes to the law. Qumranian laws are either founded on the exegesis of the Torah, or presented in an apodictic fashion, without any scriptural justification. As with biblical law, Qumranian laws are revealed. These revelations are periodically renewed, guarded secret and transmitted only within the community. Contrary to the Pharisees whose halakhic prescriptions were uttered 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 just as it is rejected by the Sadduceans. However the similarities between Qumranian and Sadducean prescriptions, in particular with respect to laws of purity, do not allow us to take the Qumranians for Sadduceans; the similarities rather indicate a meeting point of two distinct approaches: the first apply strickly within a separatist community, while the application of the second are reserved for the Temple and its rituals alone. On the other hand, the comparison of the Qumranian halakha with essenian practicies confirms down to the last detail the identification of the Essenians with the Qumran Community. The element of change in the conception of the law introduced by the belief in a progressive revelation must be interpreted with an eschatological perspective: the function of the Messiah or Messiahs being not to abrogate the law but to reveal its full significance. As for the origins of the religious 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.