לתולדות כת האיסיים: עיונים בחזון החיות, ספר היובלים וברית דמשק

At the end of the Animal Apocalypse (I Enoch, Chap. 90) and in the Book of Jubilees 23, 16-20, are found eschatological descriptions, whose details are historically valuable. The major historical event described in both sources is similar; the 'younger men' revolt against their elders, claiming that they are sinners, but are not heeded. According to the description in the Book of Jubilees, this quarrel leads to a civil war. Almost all scholars since Charles have agreed that this describes the battle of the Ḥasidim (and the Maccabbees) against the Hellenizers. However, a careful study of these texts show that those described are not Hellenizers, and the sinners described are the majority of the people of Israel who are loyal to the Torah; the words are written from the perspective of a separatist, isolationist sect, similar to the Qumran sect. Several parallels can be found between the description of the sect's origins in these texts, and the descritption of the origin of the Essenes in the Damascus Covenant col. I, lines 8-11. (The author sees there no reference to Ḥasidim.) The author infers that the Animal Apocalypse and the Book of Jubilees describe the origin of the Essenes, a sect formed with a reformist-fundamentalist halachic purpose, opposed to the halachic practice of the time. In any event, the Hellenizing period does not'fit these descriptions. The author suggests that they were written during the Ḥasmonean period. The second part of the article describes what is written in the Damscus Covenant, ms. A7 line 10, which uses a phrase from Isaiah 8, 14. An examination of the verse in its context and of the method of the peser used by the Qumran sect, leads us to surmise that this line hints at the fact that the split between the Pharisees and Zadukees occurred during the same period as the split between the Pharisees and this sect. Sects which are intermediate between the three main groupings in Judaism during the Second Temple Period (Pharisees, Zadukees and Essenes), mentioned in the writings of the Qumran sect are dealt with as well.