NEW COVENANT. - A Jewish sect, about which information is given by an incomplete Hebrew codex, discovered in the winter of 1896-97 and published in 1910 by S. Schechter, today commonly called the "Ṣādhōqite document." Founded by the "Teacher of Righteousness," under the guidance of the "unique Messiah," it emigrated from Jerusalem to Damascus, apparently because of internal conflicts within the priestly class, from which the sect originated, and because of which the new community, while retaining the priesthood, allowed itself to be directed by laymen. The leader of the opponents of the "N. A." is a "man of lies," who is reproached with seducing the people into avarice, lust, and the profanation of the Sanctuary. For the "end of days" another "Teacher of Righteousness" is awaited. Various practices are imposed on the adherents, called "penitents" and "sons of Ṣādhōq," which regulate their life in minute detail: observance of the Sabbath, feasts, fasts, monogamy, etc.
The origin of the sect, its chronological and ideological placement in the Israelite world, constitute problems still open. The data offered by the document itself (1, 5 ff.), which would place the foundation in 196 B.C. ("390 years after the destruction of Jerusalem" of 586 B.C.) and the emigration to Damascus in 176 B.C., in the full Hellenistic period, are the most commonly used, at least as a generic indication: some scholars, however, consider them purely literary data (in relation especially to Ez. 4, 5), devoid of documentary value. Some think generically of the Seleucid era (P. Kahle), some more precisely of the Maccabean age (B. Reicke), some of the age of Christ (R. Eicler; J. Schonsboe). The connection with currents known from religious history is also made in various ways: Sadducees, Pharisees, Dositheans, Karaites.
A new complication in the problem is brought by the Hebrew texts of the "apocryphal" type discovered in the cave of 'Ajn Fešḥah, first of all the one entitled War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness and the collection of Hymns, both partially edited by E. L. Sukenik. Between these two documents and the Ṣādhōqite one, notable points of contact have been found in expressions proper to them, which have led J. Tournay (v. bibl., pp. 216 ff., 226, 232 f.) to affirm their common origin ("a literary whole belonging to the same sect," p. 232) and to put forward the hypothesis that for their placement in history one must think of a Jewish insurrectionary movement of the era of the Roman penetration (the Kittim) into Syria-Palestine, which in moments of particular gravity, close to military actions (Pompey's conquest; Titus's war), reinforced its intentions of armed resistance or at least of isolation in defense of its spiritual heritage. Only the complete publication of all the documents and an exhaustive study of them will be able to shed light on the subject.
Bibliography8 works
On the recently discovered texts: E. L. Sukenik, Mēghillōth gē-nūzāth mittōkh gēnīzāh gēdhūmāh lennimṣe'ah bammidhbār jē-hūdhāh ("Hidden Scrolls in an Ancient Hiding Place Found in the Desert of Judea"), Jerusalem 1948; J. Tournay, Les anciens manuscrits hébreux récemment découverts, in Rev. bibl., 46 (1949), pp. 204-33.
Giovanni Rinaldi
(phot. Enit)
(prop. Enc. Cutt.)