Community Rule (1QS)

The Community Rule (Serekh ha-Yahad, 1QS), formerly called the Manual of Discipline, is the foundational document of the Qumran community, setting out its constitution, admissions process, and annual covenant ceremony.|||1QS, one of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Cave 1 in 1947. Written in Hebrew in a square Hasmonean script. Eleven relatively we'll-preserved columns.|||Composed c. 100 BCE. One of the oldest documents of the sect.|||Not canonical in any tradition.|||The constitution of the Qumran community. Describes the dualism of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, the annual covenant ceremony, and the community's hierarchical structure. Essential for understanding the sectarian community that preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls.|||Charlesworth, J. H., ed. The Dead Sea Scrolls: Rule of the Community. Westminster John Knox, 1994.|||Muraoka, T. The Community Rule 1QS, 1QSa and 1QSb: A Philological Commentary. Peeters, 2022.|||Knibb, M. A. The Qumran Community. Cambridge, 1987.|||The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls (Israel Museum)|https://dss.collections.imj.org.il/|View the complete 1QS scroll in high resolution.;; Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library|https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/|Browse all 1QS fragments.|||" He shall be initiated into the covenant of the community, to walk according to the statutes of the Sons of Light." — 1QS 1:9