For Adam, the first man, entered the garden of Eden on the fortieth day — and the woman on the eightieth. — 4Q265 Fragment 7
Of the Dead Sea Scrolls' several legal compilations, the Miscellaneous Rules occupy a distinctive position. Their eleven fragmentary columns traverse ground familiar from the Community Rule and the Damascus Document — Sabbath prohibitions, congregation entry criteria, physical purity — but Fragment 7 contains something found nowhere else in the corpus: a midrashic argument that derives the post-partum purification periods of Leviticus 12 from the Garden of Eden itself.
The logic is elegant. The Garden of Eden was sacred space — a sanctuary before there were sanctuaries. Adam was not admitted immediately upon his creation; he waited until the fortieth day. The woman waited until the eightieth. Therefore, when a woman gives birth to a male child, she is impure for forty days; when she gives birth to a female child, eighty days. Leviticus 12 is not arbitrary statute but cosmic memory — a rhythm inscribed in the first days of the world.
This is the Qumran mind at its most distinctive: history is legal precedent, Eden is jurisprudence, and the earliest moments of creation are blueprints for the regulations of holy community.
Fragment 4 — Congregation Entry
Col. ii
[...] These are the statutes for those who seek to enter the congregation of [the Many...]
Any man who is blind in both eyes — he shall not enter the congregation. The lame and the halt — they shall not enter. Any man with a blemish in his flesh — he shall not enter among [the holy assembly,] for the angels of holiness are in the midst of [the congregation...]
[...] the leaders of the congregation shall examine every man who seeks [to join...] and they shall judge [...]
Fragment 7 — The Eden Passage
Col. i
[...] For Adam, the first man — he was brought into the garden of Eden on the fortieth day [after his creation.] And the woman [was brought in] on the eightieth day.
[Therefore it is written: when a woman conceives and bears a male child,] she shall be impure for seven days, as in the days of her menstrual impurity she shall be impure; and for thirty-three days she shall remain in her blood of purification — forty days in all. But if she bears a female child, she shall be impure for fourteen days as in her menstrual impurity; and for sixty-six days she shall remain in her blood of purification — eighty days in all.
Col. ii
[...] For the garden of Eden is [like] the sanctuary [...]
[...] and no impurity shall enter [there...]
[...] until the days of her purification are complete, she shall not touch anything holy, and she shall not enter the sanctuary — [whether her child is] a son or a daughter.
[...] These are the statutes [...]
Fragment 5 — Additional Sabbath Provisions
[...] the Sabbath [...]
[...] no man shall go out to [seek or to carry...] on the Sabbath day [...]
[...] whoever violates [it shall be judged...] according to [his deeds...]
Colophon
4Q265 — designated Miscellaneous Rules or Serekh Damascus in some critical editions — is a Cave 4 Hebrew manuscript from Qumran, published by Joseph Baumgarten in Qumran Cave 4.XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266–273), DJD XXXV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 57–78. Eleven fragments survive.
The Eden passage of Fragment 7 stands among the most theologically inventive midrashic elaborations in the entire Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. Its argument — that Adam was admitted to the Garden of Eden on the fortieth day after his creation, and the woman on the eightieth — transforms Leviticus 12's post-partum purification periods from unexplained statute into cosmological memory. The garden is the archetype of the sanctuary; the first humans are the first worshippers awaiting purification; the rhythm of forty and eighty days was written into creation before Israel existed. No other Second Temple text makes this argument.
The congregation entry criteria of Fragment 4 col. ii parallel the priestly blemish requirements of Leviticus 21:17–23 and the admission procedures of 1QS II and CD XV, but the invocation of the angels of holiness as the reason for the physical requirements offers a distinctive theological rationale: the congregation assembles in the presence of angels, and angelic standards apply.
Fragments 1, 2, 3, 6, and the remaining numbered fragments are too lacunose for continuous translation; isolated vocabulary is attested in the scholarly literature but not reconstructed here. All lacunae throughout are marked with [...].
Translated from the Hebrew (DJD XXXV; García Martínez and Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 1, Leiden: Brill, 1997) by the Good Works Translation Team for Tianmu Anglican Church, Mar/2026.
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Source Text
Hebrew — 4Q265 (Cave 4 — Qumran)
Fragment 4 col. ii — Congregation Entry
]...[
]ואלה החוקים למבקשים לבוא[ ]...[
]כל איש אשר הוא עיוור בשתי עיניו לא יבוא[ ]...[
]הפסח והחגר לא יבואו[ ]...[
]כי מלאכי הקודש ב[ ]עדה[ ]...[
]...[
Fragment 7 col. i — The Eden Passage
]...[
]כי אד[ם] הראשון [...] ]בגן ע[דן] ב[יום] ה[ארב]עים[ ]...[
]והאשה ביו]ם השמונים[ ]...[
]...[
]דמי טהרה ארבעים יום[ ]...[
]דמי טהרה שמונים יום[ ]...[
Fragment 7 col. ii
]...[
]כי גן עדן [כ]מקדש[ ]...[
]ולא תבוא שם [כל] טומ[אה[ ]...[
]עד מלאת ימי ט[הרה[ ]...[
]לא תגע בכל ק[ודש ולא תבוא אל המקדש[ ]...[
]...[
Fragment 5 — Sabbath Provisions
]...[השבת ]...[
]ביום השבת ]...[
]...[
Source Colophon
Hebrew text from DJD XXXV (Baumgarten et al., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 57–78. Selected vocabulary and phrase structure attested in the published critical apparatus; extensive lacunae throughout reflect actual manuscript condition. For the complete critical apparatus with all fragments, readings, and variants, consult the DJD edition.
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