NR\Reader checked\01/06/2015
Lev. 15:1-15 discusses in detail the ways in which a man who had an irregular penile discharge, a zab, transmits his impurity. Direct contact with a zab, touching or carrying his seat or bed can all conduct this impurity. In verses 16-18 however, Leviticus only briefly discusses the impurity of regular seminal discharges, and goes into less detail. This discrepancy encourages interpretive efforts, one of which can be found at Qumran.
|A Qumran scroll, 4QTohoraa (4Q274), offers a sectarian reading of this biblical passage. Fragment 2 particularly discusses the laws of semen impurity using the terminology used in Leviticus concerning zab. The article offers a new reading of fragment 2 and reconstructs the fundamental principles behind the creation of these laws.