Age-Status Stratification in the Qumran "Rules"
Rules of the Community -- Dead Sea Scrolls 
Jackson Snyder, November 6, 1992, updated March 13, 2005

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Thesis: A social system can be artificially manufactured using the various "Rules" from the ancient Jewish sectarian literature of Qumran (The Dead Sea Scrolls). Furthermore, this system can be stratified by age and analyzed using Neugarten's various "social times."

OUTLINE
I. The Essenes, a sect of Judaism,
A. lived in a communal setting on the shores of the Dead Sea, at Khirbet Qumran.
B. existed the historic period of 2nd century, B. C. E. to 68 C. E., when they were annihilated by the Romans.
C. engaged in animal husbandry and farming.
D. were patriarchal, yet benevolent to strangers, orphans, and women.
E. enjoyed a life-span of as many as 100 years, though the life expectancy at that time was perhaps 29 years.
F. left behind a vast library of Biblical and sectarian documents;
1. as many of 800 of which have been recovered from nearby caves -
2. many of these demonstrate the Essene social system, though distorted by Messianicism.
3. Texts used to manufacture a model of the community include "The Temple Scroll," "The Damascus Rule," "The Messianic Rule," and "The War Rule."

II. Age Status Stratification the status quo:
A. Josephus mentions 4 levels after preparation.
B. I define these culturally defined ages in four levels within ages ten to thirty (then beyond):
1. Level I Elementary; ages 10 - 20, where the sectarian is trained in the "Book of Meditation" and the rules of the community;
2. Level II Freshman; ages 20 - 25, where the sectarian is initiated into the congregation, beginning the study of his particular function, and allowed to attend to family matters;
3. Level III Junior; ages 25 - 30, where the sectarian might become one of the officials of the congregation, or a soldier;
4. Level IV Senior; ages 30 - 60, where the sectarian comes into full connection, with all the rights and privileges of superior rank (one retires at 60).

III. Analysis:
A. The age status system in sectarian documents is based on the Hebrew Bible.
B. Socialization continues throughout the life span by means of continuous opportunities for advancement and education.
C. Social status is acquired by age only; stratification may occur within age groups based on other factors.
D. The apocalypticism of the Essenes is based on their historic time and scriptures.
E. When social time and life time did not correlate, expulsion from the group became the solution to status inconsistency.

(This paper is being prepared as extra credit for a class in "Adult Generativity" at Candler School of Theology with Professor John Snarey. Having spent some time in class with Neugarten's article "Sociological Perspectives on the Life Cycle," which deals with age status structure, I remembered a particular scripture from the "Dead Sea Scrolls" describing men of the sect of the Essenes1 stratified for certain duties and privileges at ages twenty, twenty-five, and thirty. Since I am interested in the ancient sectarian Judaism described in the "Scrolls," I thought that it would be interesting to evoke this scripture, manufacture a model, then analyze it using similar sectarian texts, appropriate Bible texts, and insights from Neugarten.)

The Qumran Essenes¹ were an aesthetic, segregated sect of the Judaism which thrived from about the 2nd century B. C. E. to 68 C. E. at which time they appear to have been annihilated by the "Kittim."²  One branch of this sect lived at a communal compound on the shores of the Dead Sea about 8 miles from Jericho. The ruins, Khirbet Qumran, remain. There, or thereabouts, the 4000³ or so sectarians engaged in the free practice of their peculiar religion, animal husbandry, and farming(?) (Josephus Wars 2.8.2).⁴

The Essenes were benevolent to strangers, orphans and women; the remains of women and children were found in nearby gravesites. Since at least a faction of the congregation was celibate, children from outside were taken in as novitiates of the sect. Average life expectancy among the general Jewish population at around this time may have been around 29 years⁵ ("Beth She'arim"), but Josephus writes that, due to the strict dietary and sanitary regulations of the Essenes, some lived as long as 100 years (Wars 2.8.51).

The sect accumulated a vast library of philosophical and religious scrolls (a large scriptorium ? was identified among the ruins), and as many as 800 separate documents were recovered from the caves surrounding the ruin in the decade following 1947.⁶ Included in the cache is most of the Hebrew Bible, some works of Plato, hundreds of fragments of (Ethiopic) Enoch, and many unique religious documents describing the beliefs and practices of the sect (we assume).⁷

Although there are some rather detailed contemporary accounts of life among the Essenes,⁸ the content of the documents in question do not necessarily bear out such testimony to a great degree. Rather, the Dead Sea Scrolls we have in translation were certainly written over a considerable period of time and are distorted by an "apocryphal" and "eschatological" mind-set.⁹ The interpretation and application of the texts to the culture of the sect are very problematic among scholars (there is an wide disparity of views), and may not even relate to the sect's actual praxis at all.

This fact must be taken into consideration when trying to manufacture some standardized aspects of the sect for the study of age status structure. Note the disparity of the following texts, each having internal evidence of our topic:

• "The Temple Scroll" (11QT)¹⁰ is the longest Qumran manuscript dated 200 - 100 B. C. E. It deals with the temple and cultic sacrifices, and rules of the ritual, and is based on the middle three books of the Pentateuch.
• "The Damascus Rule" (CD)¹¹ is a list of statutes based on unusual interpretations of Bible passages, dated by Vermes at 100 B. C. E. (82). Might these rules still be used in actual practice 160 years after they were written?
• "The Messianic Rule" (1QSa)¹² is a war manual intended for "the last days," and features instructions for the "Messianic Banquet" of bread and unfermented wine. It is dated by Vermes to about 50 B. C. E. (100). Its sequel, "The War Rule" (1QM, 4QM),¹³ is a set of very specific instructions for the military attack of the "sons of light" against the notorious Kittim (Romans), and the "sons of darkness." It is dated between 10 B. C. E. and 10 C. E. 

Therefore my manufactured community exists on paper only; a questionable composite, yet sufficient enough for a short analysis.

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Age status stratification is the status quo of the community:

...these are the precepts in which the master shall walk in his commerce with all the living in accordance with the statute proper to every age....¹⁴ (Vermes 96)

Josephus tells us that there were 4 classes after preparation for connection with the community (Wars 2.8.150). Thesis: Is there evidence enough in the sectarian texts to define and describe Josephus' classes?  Indeed, I have discovered five "culturally defined ages," which I identify and label here:

• age Level 0 0 to 10 years
• age Level I 10 to 20 years elementary
• age Level II 20 to 25 years freshman
• age Level III 25 to 30 years junior
• age Level IV 30 on years senior

The Level I elementary sectarian at 10 years was introduced to the Book of Meditation, and instructed from it. This book was a manual of statutes, and may be one of the texts recovered from the Qumran caves. Such education would continue for a full decade (Vermes 100).

This lengthy preparation period would end at age 20, when the youth would move into the freshman Level II, "knowing good and evil," and be enrolled in the congregation¹⁵ and enjoined to it, which no doubt included a ritual of passage, such as bestowal of certain garments, assignment of a seat in the congregation, particular ritual washings, etc. Part of the enjoinment included the ability to witness before the elders, and assist in judgments (100). This was the "age of accountability" for the sectarian youth, as attested by the word of the Yahweh concerning the judgment of "wilderness complainers" in Numbers 14:28,29 and 32:11.

If the freshman was a Levite, he might begin a five-year training period to learn how to "oversee the house of the Lord"¹⁶ and prepare the sacrifice (132).¹⁷ He might also have had to begin paying the communal tax in money or in-kind donations and/or services.¹⁸

In addition, the he was permitted to "know [a woman] by lying with her" and take up the duties of family (101). The freshman member would be eligible for the muster into the army-in-training for the final war against the Kittim.¹⁹

If adequately prepared by The Book of Meditation through the elementary and freshman ages, the twenty-five-year old Level III junior might "take his place among the foundations;" (101) that is, officials of the congregation. Among these foundations were Priests (maybe) and Stewards (Antiquities 18.1.22) chosen by election (Vermes 94). Privileges included saying grace before meals (Wars 2.8.131) and collecting revenues and taxes (Antiquities 18.1.22).

If in the army, a junior would be permitted to be a soldier in the infantry, among the "despoilers of the slain, the plunderers of booty, the cleansers of the land, the keepers of the baggage, and those who furnish provisions" (112).

Age Level III is quite special: as I was researching this paper I happened upon the fact that it is the "age of kings" in the Hebrew Bible. Of 14 kings of Judah or Israel mentioned between the ages of 20 and 35, 7 of these were designated by the redactor as exactly 25 years old! Four were 20 - 23; three were 30 - 35. One might also note the numerology of the 14 and the 7 in between. (This is a neat discovery.) See the matrix in footnote.²⁰

At thirty, the member comes into full connection. I have labeled this age as Level IV senior. Joseph entered Pharaoh's service at this age.²¹ Jesus, who certainly had dealings with the Essenes if he wasn't one himself at some time in his career, "was about thirty years old when he began his work..." (Luke 3:23a [NRSV]). Capon tells us that thirty-three is the ancient symbolic age of maturity (Capon 79). It seems also to be the Genesis 11 time of family ties and "begetting."²²

In the congregation, the mature man could fully participate in lawsuits and judgments, and take the highest places in the leadership hierarchy - among Judges, Officers, and Guardians (law enforcement). In addition, in the Messianic Army, this level could attain the rank of General (Chief of the Host) (Vermes 101) and first-ranked horseman (to age 45). The War Rule even ranks the army by age rather than by ability or special skills (112). Among seniors, all were ranked according to their "level of honor" (101) and were to be seated in this order at the Messianic Banquet (102).

In addition to the four age levels just described, the sectarian documents also stratify age status and duties higher up in the life span "in proportion to his strength" (101). Most ages mentioned are those of retirement. In the decade from 40 to 50, men were designated as officers or regulars in the army of the "sons of light." Although special horsemen retired from this duty by age 45, regular horsemen might serve until 50 (111). Then at 50, Levites retired from service (Numbers 8:24,25). Camp inspectors, probably like security guards, were aged 50 - 60.

At 60, the senior must step down from army, judgment, and priesthood, and retire altogether, probably to duties about the compound, or whatever (Vermes 94). The scripture cited by The Damascus Rule to validate retirement of the elderly is in the Book of Jubilees 23:12, a text from the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, which reads "... if a man live a jubilee and a half [75 years], they will say about him, 'He prolonged his life, but the majority of his days were suffering and anxiety and affliction...'" (Charlesworth 100).

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The social system described in the Dead Sea Scrolls has been demonstrated by this model to be rigidly controlled by age strata as set in ancient Jewish culture and Biblical literature. (Might I be so bold as to propose that Level III, "junior," is stratified on the primary basis of the Hebrew redactor's "age of kings" in his books of Kings and Chronicles.) When the sectarian reaches a particular age in the life time, he is expected, through indoctrination, to have grown into the social roles and duties prescribed the Qumran Rules and the Book of Meditation.

Furthermore, the process of socialization is accomplished through a life-long process of learning and discipline, beginning with 10 years of study in the Book of Meditation and other documents for adolescents, or a rigid and long servanthood for the proselyte. The strictness of the socializing process was coupled by a great benevolence and respect for the individual (as reported by the fore-mentioned contemporary historians). Social classes were maintained only on the basis of age stratification, since each member of the community received equally scarce provisions by design (Antiquities 18.1.5.20).

The apocalypticism of the Essenes is a product of their historic time. The sect was birthed in messianic expectancy (as attested in many of the Scrolls, and in the contemporaneous canonical book of Daniel), nurtured in it in hopes of deliverance from a series of political conquerors (the Seleucids, the Ptolemys, the Hasmonians,²³ the Herods,²⁴ and the Romans²⁵); encouraged in it by the various rebellions (those of the Maccabees, Judas the Galilean,²⁶ Eleazar Ben Ya'ir ²⁷); and righteously indignant for apocalypticism by polemicizing against its perceived heretics (the Pharisees, Sadducees,²⁸ Herodians, and perhaps Nazarenes).

The success of the system is demonstrated by its long history, although when social time and life time²⁹ did not correspond in the indoctrination of the proselyte, expulsion from the group was the result (thus age norms provided a rigid but workable system for social control [Neugarten 61]).

NOTES

1 Whether indeed the writers were Essenes or not is disputed. I will use the term (and mainstream thinking regarding the Essenes) here for convenience.

2 The Kittim was a code name for foreign enemies, and specifically applied first to Greeks then the Romans (invading about 70 B. C. E. It was the Romans who caused the end of the Essenes.

3 This figure is thought by most scholars to be inflated to one degree or another.

4 The two histories of Josephus I cite in this paper are Wars of the Jews and Antiquities of the Jews (late first century C. E.).

5 This study of Jewish catacombs in Galilee dates inscriptions from about 200 - 400 C. E. Though this is a different time and place, I suspect the life span of the sectarians to be similar.

6 Possibly as many as 800 unique manuscripts or fragments have been recovered, some as small as a postage stamp.

7 For a detailed history of the discoveries by one of the original scrolls team, see Allegro, John. The Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Revealed. New York: Crown Publishers, 1981.

8 Contemporary descriptions of the sect are found in the works of historian Flavius Josephus, philosopher Philo of Alexandria, and naturalist Pliny the Elder (Vermes xv).

9 The people of the documents were "eschatological" in that they were also messianic, awaiting the appearance of a warrior and/or "pierced" messiah or both. Thus much of these texts are devoted to preparing the congregation for the imminent battle against the Kittim and the subsequent messianic theocracy. The documents themselves are "apocryphal," since the meanings behind the words are obscure and hidden, as demonstrated by a reading of the sect's various Biblical commentaries

10 The Temple Scroll (11QT) excerpt, chapter XVII:

Let them [prepare on the fourtee]nth day of the first month [between dusk and dark the Passover of YHWH]. They shall sacrifice (it) before the evening offering and shall sacrifice... men from twenty years of age and over shall prepare it. (Vermes, 132)

11 The Damascus Rule (CD) excerpt, chapter X:

Ten shall be elected from the congregation for a definite time, four from the tribe of Levi and Aaron, and six from Israel. (They shall be) learned in the Book of Meditation and in the constitutions of the Covenant, and aged between twenty-five and sixty years. No man over the age of sixty shall hold office as Judge of the Congregation, for 'because man sinned his days have been shortened, and in the heat of His against the inhabitants of the earth God ordained that their understanding should depart even before their days are completed' (Vermes 94).

The quote is from Jubilees 32:12 (Charlesworth 100).

Chapter XII: And these are the precepts in which the Master shall walk in his commerce with all the living in accordance with the statute proper to every age (Vermes 96).

Chapter XIV: They shall be enrolled by name: first the Priests, second the Levites, third the Israelites, and fourth the proselytes. ...Thus shall they sit and thus be questioned on all matters. And the Priest who enrolls the Congregation shall be from thirty to sixty years old, learned in the Book of Meditation and in all the judgments of the Law so as to pronounce them correctly. The Guardian of all the camps shall be from thirty to fifty years old, one who has mastered all the secrets of men and the languages of all their clans. Whoever enters the Congregation shall do so according to his word, each in his rank. And whoever has anything to say with regard to any suit of judgment, let him say it to the guardian. (Vermes 98)

12 The text I initially remembered when reading Neugarten if from chapter I of 1QSa. (All Dead Sea Scroll text titles, designations, and translations are from Geza Vermes; see "Works Cited.") The text:

And this is the Rule for all the hosts of the congregation, for every man born in Israel.

From youth they shall instruct him in the Book of Meditation and shall teach him, according to his age, the precepts of the Covenant. He [shall be edu]cated in their statutes for ten years...

At the age of twenty years [he shall be] enrolled, that he may enter upon his allotted duties in the midst of his family (and) be joined to the holy congregation. He shall not [approach] a woman to know her by lying with her before he is fully twenty years old, when he shall know [good] and evil. And thereafter, he shall be accepted when he calls to witness the judgments of the Law, and shall be (allowed) to assist at the hearing of judgments.

At the age of twenty-five years he may take his place among the foundations (i.e. the officials) of the holy congregation to work in the service of the congregation.

At the age of thirty years he may approach to participate in lawsuits and judgments, and may take his place among the chiefs of the Thousands of Israel, the chiefs of the Hundreds, Fifties, and Tens, the Judges and the officers of their tribes, in all their families, [under the authority] of the sons of [Aar]on the Priests.

And every head of family in the congregation who is chosen to hold office, [to go] and come before the congregation, shall strengthen his loins that he may perform his tasks among his brethren in accordance with his understanding and the perfection of his way.

According to whether this is great or little, so shall one man be honored more than another.

When a man is advanced in years, he shall be given a duty in the [ser]vice of the congregation in proportion to his strength. (Vermes 100-101)

[The Priest] shall come [at] the head of the whole congregation of Israel with all [his brethren, the sons] of Aaron the Priests, [those called] to the assembly, the men of renown; and they shall sit [before him, each man] in the order of his dignity. (Vermes 102)

13 The War Rule (1QM, 4QM), 

Chapter VI: The horses advancing into battle with the foot-soldiers shall all be stallions. ...Their riders shall be gallant fighting men and skilled horsemen, and their age shall be from thirty to forty-five years. The horsemen of the army shall be from forty to fifty years old. ...They shall all hold themselves prepared...of God and to spill the blood of the wicked.... (Vermes 111-112)

Chapter VII: The men of the army shall be from forty to fifty years old. The inspectors of the camps shall be from fifty to sixty years old. The officers shall be from forty to fifty years old. The despoilers of the slain, the plunderers of booty, the cleansers of the land, the keepers of the baggage, and those who furnish the provisions shall be from twenty-five to thirty years old. (Vermes 112)

14 Citations from Vermes will from now on refer to Qumran texts printed above. This is less confusing than using the textual designations.

15 Numbers 1:2-3

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of <their> names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. (all Bible quotes AV)

16 Ezra 3:8

Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of El at Jerusalem... [they] appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of YHWH.

Five years later (Numbers 8:24):

This <is it> that <belongeth> unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

17 Whether the Essenes sacrificed is quite another matter, but they probably expected to in the Messianic Theocracy, thus may have prepared these offices ahead of time.  (Texts recovered since the initial writing of this paper indicated that they ceased the sacrifice: 4QMMT, etc.)

18 Exodus 30:14 Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto YHWH.

19 2 Chronicles 25:5: I cite this verse because of the similarity of "thousands, hundreds" with similar language in The Messianic Rule (see also Numbers 1:2-3 above):

Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of <their> fathers...and he numbered them from twenty years old and above....

It is also pertinent to add that the Essene army of the sons of light may or may not have existed, especially in the great numbers of soldiers described in the War Rule. Nevertheless, Josephus reports somewhere that the Essenes fought and suffered valiantly against the Romans at their invasion of Khirbet Qumran around 68 C. E. and Masada later.

20 Matrix of Kings (The New Harper's was used for dates)

King        Country      Dates           Age  Reference
Ahaz        Judah        735 - 715 (20)  20   2 Kings 16:2
Zedekiah    Judah        597 - 586 (11)  21   2 Kings 24:18
Amon        Judah        642 - 640 (2)   22   2 Kings 21:19
Jehoahaz    Israel       816 - 800 (16)  23   2 Kings 23:31
Joash       Judah        837 - 800 (37)  25   2 Kings 14:2
Amaziah     Judah        800 - 783 (17)  25   2 Chronicles 25:1
Jotham      Judah        750 - 734 (16)  25   2 Chronicles 27:1
Pekah       Israel       737 - 732 (5)   25   2 Kings 15:33
Hoshea*     Israel       732 - 724 (8)   25   2 Kings 18:2
Hezekiah    Judah        727 - 698 (29)  25   2 Chronicles 29:1
Jehoiakim   Judah        609 - 598 (11)  25   2 Kings 23:36
David       Israel       1010- 970 (40)  30   2 Samuel 5:4
Jehoshaphat Judah        873 - 848 (25)  35   1 Kings 22:42
Jehoram     Judah        849 - 842 (7)   32 2 Kings 8:17
* the final king of Israel

21 Genesis 41:36 "And Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharoah...."

22 Matrix of Fatherhood

Arpachshad begets Shelah  35 (Gen 11:12).
Shelah begets Eber        35 (Gen 11:14).
Eber begets Peleg         34 (Gen 11:16).
Peleg begets Reu          30 (Gen 11:18).
Reu begets Serug          32 (Gen 11:20).
Serug begets Nahor        30 (Gen 11:22).

23 Attested by the deutero-canonical books of the Maccabees I-IV.

24 See Antiquities 14, 15ff.

25 See Wars 3.5.1ff.

26 Acts 5:37 and Wars 2.8.1.

27 See Wars 7.8.6ff.

28 See Antiquities 13.5.9.

29 Life time, social time, historic time, socialization, and social roles are terms referred to in Neugarten (54-57).

Works Cited

"Beth She'arim: Vast Underground Jewish Burial Caves Demonstrate Synergism of Greek Art with Jewish Tradition." Biblical Archaeological Review, September/October 1992:55-56.

Capon, Robert Farrar. The Third Peacock. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 2. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1983.

Metzger, Bruce M., Roland E. Murphy, eds. New Revised Standard Version: The New Oxford Annotated Bible With The Apocrypha. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Miller, Madeline S., J. Lane Miller, eds. The New Harper's Bible Dictionary. New York: Harper and Row, 1973.

Neugarten, Bernice and Nancy Datan. "Sociological Perpectives on the Life Cycle" from Life-Span Development Psychology. New York: Academic Press, 1973

Vermes, Geza, trans. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 3rd ed. London: Penguin Books Limited, 1987.

Whiston, William, trans. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987.

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