He shall rebuke each one according to his iniquity.
— Community Rule (1QS VI)

4Q477 is unique in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus: a formal record of disciplinary proceedings against named individuals. The Community Rule mandates that the overseer (the mebaqqer) rebuke members who transgress the community's statutes, and the Rule specifies the offenses that warrant censure — short temper, arrogance, greed, strife-raising. This text appears to be the actual record of those proceedings, not the rule but the event. Two names survive. Nothing else in the Qumran corpus does this.

Fragment 1 is too lacunose for continuous translation. Fragment 2, in two columns, preserves the essentials.

Fragment 2, Column i

[The column is partially preserved. It names the first member subject to rebuke and records the charges against him.]

[...] Yohanan ben Ar[...] —
short-tempered,
a lover of wealth.
[...]

Fragment 2, Column ii

[Better preserved. Records the rebuke of a second named member.]

[...] Hananiah Notos —
rebuked for raising strife
in the midst of the Many.
[...]

Colophon

4Q477 (4QRebukes by the Overseer). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Two fragments; Fragment 2 is the most legible. Principal edition: Esther Eshel, "4Q477: The Rebukes by the Overseer," Journal of Jewish Studies 45.1 (1994): 111–122. Also published in DJD XXXVI (Oxford: Clarendon, 2000).

The name Notos (נוטוס) is a Greek loanword functioning as a personal epithet or distinguishing nickname — Greek names and appellations were common in Hasmonean-period Judea. Whether it carries a meaning (Notos = south wind in Greek) or is simply a borrowed personal name cannot be determined from the fragment alone. The phrase "the Many" (הרבים) is the Community Rule's standard term for the full assembly of members.

The charges attested — short-tempered (קצר אפים, literally "short of breath/nostrils"), lover of wealth, raising strife — correspond precisely to offenses enumerated in the Community Rule's disciplinary code (1QS VII). This text may be the ledger that the Rule's regulations anticipated: the actual implementation of what the Rule prescribes.

Its smallness is part of its importance. It is not theology. It is history.

Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.

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Source Text

4Q477 — Hebrew

Note: 4Q477 survives in two fragments. Fragment 1 is too lacunose for transcription. Fragment 2 preserves the most legible material in two columns. Only the securely attested vocabulary is presented below; lacunae are marked [...]. Transcription follows Esther Eshel, JJS 45.1 (1994), and DJD XXXVI.

Fragment 2, Col. i

]...[ ]...[
]...[ יוחנן ב[ן א]ר[
]...[ קצר אפ[ים
]...[ ואוהב [כסף
]...[ ]...[

Fragment 2, Col. ii

]...[ ]...[
]...[ חנניה נוטוס
]...[ להרים מריב[ה
]...[ בתוך הרבים
]...[ ]...[

Fragment 1: too lacunose for transcription.

Source Colophon

4Q477. Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Two fragments. Primary transcription: Esther Eshel, "4Q477: The Rebukes by the Overseer," Journal of Jewish Studies 45.1 (1994), 111–122; DJD XXXVI (Oxford: Clarendon, 2000). Only the securely legible vocabulary is presented; all surrounding text is lacunose. No conjectural restorations have been inserted. Lacunae marked [...].

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