The Wetnurse and Her Conflicting Identities in the Damascus Document and Beyond

Set among a list of Sabbath regulations within the Damascus Document, CD 11:11 legislates that a wetnurse shall not lift the baby to go out or come in on the Sabbath. In wider Greco-Roman society during this period, wetnurses were often foreigners and slaves or freedwomen. This understanding makes interpreters pause and question the nature of the wetnurse in the Damascus Document. Is this wetnurse an enslaved person or free? And, if a slave, is she Jewish or gentile? This essay considers these questions through a comparison of the wetnurse among Greco-Roman sources, rabbinic texts, and contextual evidence provided within the Scrolls themselves. For the female wetnurse of the Damascus Document, varied identity elements of gentile or Jewish nature and status as enslaved or free all contribute to potential internal conflicts according to scriptural and community regulations.