Rule of the Community

The Qumran’s Rule of the Community (1QSa 2:5-22) lists the following people as forbidden entry into the eschatological banquet: those who are afflicted in the flesh, crushed in feet or hands, lame, blind, deaf, or dumb; those who suffer from defective eyesight or senility. The list of those forbidden entry reads like the requirements to be a priest contained in Leviticus 21:17-20 which suggest that the community considered its members to be priests.

Lev 21:16 And the LORD said to Moses,

Lev 21:17 "Say to Aaron, None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God.

Lev 21:18-20 For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles; no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD's offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

The Lucan Jesus adds the “poor” to this list-but all will be invited to the banquet! Shunning these people may change their behavior but would not cure, heal or remove their afflictions. They would still be excluded by Rule of the Community.

Copyrighted 2007

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Gospel of Luke