The Earthly Essene Nucleus of 1QSa

Most commentators on 1QSa would agree that this so-called Messianic Rule reflects the life of an existing earthly community. The prevailing opinion on 1QSa is that we have in front of us a Messianic or Eschatological Rule which describes the life and conduct of the Qumran community in the Messianic age. L.H. Schiffman's recent monograph is the fullest expression of this view to date. Compare, for example, the following statement by Schiffman: "The events predicted in this text [i.e. lQSa] actually constitute a kind of mirror image of the society described in the Manual of Discipline."
An assessment of 1QSa along these lines has gone almost unchallenged in Qumran studies over a considerable period. In fact, until fairly recently not a great deal of scholarly attention was being devoted to the Rule of the Congregation.
More recently something of a resurgence of interest in the Rule of the Congregation can be noted. Apart from Schiffman's monograph mentioned already, H. Stegemann has proposed a new approach to 1QSa. Stegemann has developed his argument on lQSa most fully in his paper at the IOQS Paris Meeting in 1992 entitled "Some Remarks on lQSa, lQSb, and Qumran Messianism."
It is a central concern of this paper to emphasize that an association of the communal rules contained in 1QSa 1:6-2:11a with the Qumran community as described in 1QS is quite misleading. It is likely that this prevailing view is based on the introductory lines to 1QSa (1:1-3) on the one hand, and the fact that IQSa is found on the same scroll immediately after the Community Rule on the other. By contrast it is argued here that the body of 1QSa, esp. 1QSa 1:6-2:11a should rather be associated with the community behind the Laws of the Damascus Document.
This paper argues that comparative observations between 1QSa and the Damascus Document suggest that the core of the Rule of the Congregation consists of a piece of communal legislation that goes back to the Essene parent movement of the Qumran community. This material is found in 1QSa 1:6-2:11a and may originally have existed independently as the presence of a second heading in 1QSa 1:6 suggests. In terms of its size the section in 1QSa 1:6-2:11a is the largest in 1QSa and our results are, therefore, of crucial importance for one's perception of the whole document. This communal legislation shows, furthermore, a number of important common features with the communal legislation in the Laws of the Damascus Document which point to a similar social setting. Apart from having been embedded into its present Messianic setting, 1QSa 1:6-2:11a underwent a "Zadokite recension" which resulted in the addition of a number of redactional passages that reflect the social background of 1QS 5.