How to Rewrite Torah: The Case for Proto-Sectarian Ideology in the Reworked Pentateuch (4QRP)

This study challenges the initial categorization of the Reworked Pentateuch (4Q364-4Q367) as another non-sectarian textual witness to the Torah. A close analysis of the manuscripts suggests that some of the unaligned readings likely reflect some of the sectarian ideas of the community. Other variants evoke both content and ideology of the authoritative “Rewritten Bible” documents, the Temple Scroll and Jubilees. These characteristics imply that 4QRP contains deliberate reworking of biblical material that is in line with sectarian ideology, in contrast to a mere mechanical copying of the text. Though the scroll may not be strictly sectarian, at the very least, it is proto-sectarian, in that 4QRP served as source material for the community’s ideology.