The Qumran Conveyance: A Reply to Frank Moore Cross and Esther Eshel

The Israeli epigrapher Esther Eshel and the American scholar Frank M. Cross have published a reading of an ostracon found near the site of Khirbet Qumran which they have interpreted as substantiating an hypothetical connexion between the ruin complex and the documents found in the caves. Thus they have thought to find the word yahad, "community", in the ostracon, and they have interpreted it as a deed of gift from a new member of the Qumran community to the community as a whole. This is premature, as a close examination of both the ostracon itself and the available photographs of it shows the word yahad not to be present. The ostracon is shown to be an ordinary sale contract, albeit a poorly-preserved one; it is hence in future to be called simply the "Qumran conveyance".