Blood Manipulation Ritual in the Temple Scroll

Reflecting the importance of blood manipulation in the biblical sacrificial cult, there is considerable content in the Temple Scroll related to cultic blood manipulation. This paper offers a systematic examination of that content, giving particular consideration to questions about how the Temple Scroll’s prescriptions for the manipulation of sacrificial blood are related exegetically to the work’s biblical sources. The essay also offers analysis of the blood rituals represented in the text that draws on insights of ritual theory to elucidate their indexical character-the ways in which blood manipulation actions enact or mark relationships and status within the cultic world portrayed by the Temple Scroll.