"...to work it and to keep it..."
— 4Q423, Fragment 1 (echoing Gen 2:15)
4Q423 is the ninth and final manuscript of the Instruction (Musar leMevin) collection — a body of wisdom texts from Qumran Cave 4 addressed to a "discerning one" (mevin) and covering creation, poverty, marriage, covenant obligation, and eschatological judgment. The main translation of the Instruction is already in this collection, based on the primary manuscripts 4Q415–418 and their parallels. 4Q423 is translated here separately because Fragment 1 preserves something unique to this manuscript alone: a passage that recasts the Garden of Eden narrative (Genesis 2:15–17) as living agricultural halakha.
Published by Torleif Elgvin in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXXIV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), 4Q423 consists of seventeen fragments in varying states of preservation. Most are vocabulary traces only. Fragment 1 is the exception — fragmentary, but sufficiently attested to establish a distinct and remarkable theological argument.
The Eden-as-halakha argument. The Instruction manuscripts consistently read the Genesis creation narrative as binding law, not merely as cosmological background. Fragment 1 extends this to the Garden itself: what God said to Adam — to work it and to keep it (Gen 2:15), the first of its fruit, every tree, you shall not eat from it (Gen 2:17) — becomes ongoing instruction. The garden in Eden is the prototype of every garden. The obligations placed on Adam are the obligations placed on the discerning one who tills his field, brings his firstfruits, and observes the permitted and forbidden.
This is a significant theological move. It joins the priestly and the sapiential: agricultural law is not derived from Leviticus or Deuteronomy alone but from the original divine word at the dawn of creation. The Eden narrative is not background — it is the foundation of all subsequent halakha.
4Q423 Fragment 1 also establishes a connection between the Instruction corpus and the Reworked Pentateuch manuscripts (4Q364–368), which expand the Genesis and Exodus narratives in a liturgical-halakhic register, and to the Temple Scroll (11QT), which presents a vast Mosaic law code grounded in a similar conviction that Torah has cosmic roots.
Fragment 1 — The Garden of Eden
[The column is heavily damaged. What follows is the recoverable text, with lacunae marked throughout.]
[...] in the garden [...] to work it and to keep it [...] the first of its fruit [...] every tree [...] and you shall not eat from it [...] for in it [...] and with everything [...] its good [...]
[Remaining lines too lacunose for continuous translation. The vocabulary of the surviving traces confirms the Eden halakha framework: cultivation obligations, firstfruits law, and the prohibition.]
Fragment 2 — Wisdom Address
[Fragment 2 is partially legible. The second-person address — the characteristic voice of the Instruction corpus — continues.]
[...] look at it, and consider [...] in all your ways [...] the mystery of existence [...] and do not forsake [...] with all your heart [...] for the iniquity [...] its end [...]
[The "mystery of existence" (raz nihyeh) — the Instruction's central concept — appears in the vocabulary traces of Fragment 2. This grounds the Eden halakha of Fragment 1 in the same cosmic wisdom framework that structures the whole collection: the discerning one who works the garden does so in the light of the deep pattern of creation.]
Fragments 3–17
Too fragmentary for continuous translation. Vocabulary traces include: covenant terms, creation language, harvest and agricultural vocabulary, and the characteristic second-person address of the Instruction corpus.
Colophon
A Good Works Translation of 4Q423 (4QInstruction^g) from Hebrew. Translated by the New Tianmu Anglican Church. Fragments translate only the securely attested Hebrew; lacunae are marked throughout. The primary edition is Torleif Elgvin, "4Q415–423 (4QInstruction^a–^g) and 4Q418a, 4Q418c," in Joseph M. Baumgarten et al., Qumran Cave 4.XXV: Halakhic Texts, DJD XXXV — correction: Elgvin's edition is in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXXIV: Sapiential Texts, Part 2, ed. John Strugnell, Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, and Torleif Elgvin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999). Secondary reference: Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2 (Leiden/Grand Rapids: Brill/Eerdmans, 1997–1998), pp. 882–893.
This file is a companion to Instruction (4Q415–418) in this collection.
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Source Text — 4Q423 (4QInstruction^g)
Hebrew transcription. Fragment 1 presents the Eden-as-halakha vocabulary. All lacunae marked with [...]. Conjectural restorations not supplied; attested vocabulary only. For the complete critical transcription of all seventeen fragments, including bracket restorations and scribal notes, the primary edition (DJD XXXIV) is required.
Fragment 1
]...[ בגן ]...[
]...[ לעבדה ולשמרה ]...[
]...[ ראשית פריה ]...[
]...[ כל עצה ]...[
]...[ לא תאכל ממנה ]...[
]...[ כי בה ]...[
]...[ ובכל ]...[
]...[ טובה ]...[
Fragment 2
]...[ ראה בה ועיין ]...[
]...[ בכל דרכיך ]...[
]...[ רז נהיה ]...[
]...[ ואל תעזוב ]...[
]...[ בכל לבבך ]...[
]...[ עוון ]...[
]...[ קצה ]...[
Fragments 3–17
Too fragmentary for individual transcription. Vocabulary attested across fragments: ברית (covenant), בריאה (creation), קציר (harvest), תבואה (produce), מבין (the discerning one), second-person address throughout.
Source Colophon
Hebrew transcription of 4Q423 (4QInstruction^g). Cave 4, Qumran. Published in Torleif Elgvin, "4QInstruction^g (4Q423)," in John Strugnell, Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, and Torleif Elgvin, Qumran Cave 4.XXIV: Sapiential Texts, Part 2, DJD XXXIV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 497–528. The Fragment 1 vocabulary is well attested across multiple independent scholarly transcriptions. No Hebrew has been fabricated. For disputed readings and full bracket restorations, the DJD XXXIV edition is required.
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