The Wilderness, Damascus and the Land: The Notion of Place in Sectarian Community Building” The Dead Sea Scrolls at Seventy

Qumranic sectarian documents have a special inclination towards places. In addition to the Wilderness (a symbol or reality?) in 1QS 8, and the Land of Damascus (a metaphor for exile?) in CD, Jerusalem is mentioned in both positive and negative senses, and perhaps also as a symbol, in several documents such as the War Rule and 1QpHab. In addition, more general terms attest to the significance of the notion of place or space. The “camps” in CD may relate to Israel's camp(s) in the wilderness as symbolizing sacredness. Also, the idea of atoning for the Land appears several times in the 'holy house' passages in 1QS 8–9 and may be related to the sect as a place on earth.

I will examine how the authors used these particular and general locations to create a sense of concrete space. Places are not merely geographical terms, they become metaphors for the community. They create a sense of concreteness, perhaps because some of the members of the sect were wanderers (either by choice or because they were persecuted). Using critical theory on symbolic space and the role of metaphors, I suggest exploring a unique sense of place in Qumran which demonstrates that the metaphor of wilderness, which perhaps is the origin of this phenomenon, is only part of a larger notion of sectarian community as a place/space.