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The Essenes repudiated worship at the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem, which they considered corrupt, and scholars have long wondered whether they rejected all temple worship, as the Christians later did. The new scroll shows that temple worship was as central for the Essenes as for other Jews. Indeed, nearly half of the scroll deals with rules that the Essenes thought should have been used to build the temple and worship in it. It calls for a building of three concentric square courts, with twelve outer gates named for the twelve sons of Jacob. It also gives instructions for the surrounding area, down to the detail that the site for latrines must be 1,500 yards away "in order that it will not be visible from the [temple] city."
Ultimately, God would create the final Temple himself: on "the day of blessing . . . I will create my Temple and establish it for myself for all time." Yadin theorizes that the early Christians came in contact with the Essenes and turned their temporary rejection of the temple into a permanent belief.
The Temple Scroll also provides the first thorough look at the Halakhah (religious law) of the Essenes. Compared with the orthodox rabbinical thinking that was later codified in the second century Mishnah, the Qumran rules on ritual cleanliness were superstrict. Only the skins of properly slaughtered animals were to be permitted in the temple city. Blind people, as well as the ill and maimed, were barred as unclean. All sexual relations within the temple city were forbidden. One cemetery was to serve four cities since "you shall not follow the customs of the Gentiles who bury their dead everywhere."
Royal Polygamy. One section of the scroll provides a detailed prescription for the organization of the monarchy. The king was to have an army of 12,000 men (1,000 from each tribe) and an advisory judicial council (twelve priests, twelve lay leaders and twelve priestly attendants). The scroll also declares that "from his father's house [the king] shall take unto himself a wife . . . and he shall not take upon her another wife, for she alone shall be with him all the days of her life." This is the earliest prohibition of royal polygamy or divorce (Jewish kings were traditionally allowed up to 18 wives).
There are other novelties as well. The Essenes celebrated Yom Kippur, Succoth and Shavuot, but the Temple Scroll contains regulations for festivals that are unknown elsewhere in Judaism: the First Fruits of Wine and of Oil, and the Wood Offering, which lasted for six days.
With his Temple Scroll labors finally behind him, Yadin, 59, is plunging into a new enthusiasm: politics. Not that his career has been confined to the campus. He was head of the operations division during Israel's 1948 war of independence, and he served three years as chief of staff of the new nation's army. Resuming his work as an archaeologist. Yadin led the digs at biblical Megiddo and Hazor and at the Masada fortress where Jewish Zealots held off a Roman siege for three years before committing mass suicide.