Divorce is not explicitly condemned in CD and it is debatable if Qumran condemned divorce in general. For example, Vered Noam wrote:But the Pharisees approved of niece marriage and easy divorce, two of the big things that CD condemns.However, it is becoming increasingly evident that the sect did indeed recognise the possibility of divorce. Testimony leading to this conclusion has been widely discussed in the scholarly literature.
Below is a brief review of the evidence in this regard:
1. Damascus Document 13:15–17 requires one who divorces his wife to consult with the ... —‘Examiner/Supervisor’: ‘Let no man do anything . . . without informing the Examiner in the camp . . . and so for one divorcing’, ...
...
https://www.academia.edu/903888/Divorce ... y_Halakhah
Right, but I said easy divorce, the kind that Pharisees allowed "for any reason" (rather than only for sexual immorality, as per Shammai and Jesus' interpretations of ervat davar in Dt. 24:1), and they allowed for remarriage during the ex's lifetime, which is classified as "fornication" in CD 4.20-21 (and as "adultery" by Jesus).
So if you can't remarry after divorce during your ex's lifetime, then my take is that CD frowns on divorce in the same way that Jesus did. They both allow for it, since it's in the Torah, but remarriage after divorce amounts to adultery (in Jesus' words) or fornication (in CD's words) if it happens while the ex is still alive.
And the Herodians engaged in this kind of "fornication" by getting remarried when their exes were still alive (Mk. 8:17-18: "For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!”).
As Shemesh puts it:
The above mentioned passage from the Damascus Document ... actually forbids not only polygamy but also remarriage after divorce ... Most scholars agree that the words "in their lives" mean that neither the man nor the woman is allowed to remarry as long as their former spouse is still alive ... where, should we ask, did the Damascus Document take the prohibition on remarriage after divorce from?
This I suggest is based on Genesis 2:24: 'Therefore ... a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh' ... A 'realistic' reading of this verse would point to the source for the fundamental principle of Qumranic matrimonial law, and that is that marriage is constituted not by a contract or any other legal agreement, but by the physical union between a man and a woman ... Such an understanding of marriage bears several halakhic consequences: the most important is that as a result of the physical aspect of the union between the man and his wife, the marital tie is unbreakable and cannot be untied as long as both are alive. Indeed, the same law appears in the New Testament in the name of Jesus ... Here, too, the verse quoted as the origin of the law is Gen. 2:24 and is introduced with an expression very similar to what is used in the Damascus Document, 'from the beginning of Creation.'
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Th ... frontcover
And Collins writes:
The prohibition in CD 4.21 against taking "two women in their lifetime" is not an absolute prohibition of second marriage. Both the formula itself and the context in CD suggest that the restriction only applied while the first wife was alive. The plain sense of the text, however, cannot be restricted to concurrent polygamy. Even though the covenanters permitted divorce, they forbade remarriage in the lifetime of the divorced spouse, in accordance with their belief that marriage was indissoluble according to the order of creation ... Both CD and the gospels give priority to the order of creation as expounded in Genesis over the precedence of Deuteronomy 24.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Th ... frontcover
I will respond to the rest of your post (and your other posts) as times allows.
Statistics: Posted by John2 — Thu Feb 27, 2025 12:06 pm