¹ The Hebrew text of most of the fragments is found in Wacholder, B. Z., Abegg, M. G., A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls. The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts from Cave Four. Fascicle Two (Washington: Biblical Archaeological Society, 1992).Google Scholar The DJD edition (by J. Strugnell and D. Harrington, the present writer is responsible for one of the copies) is in preparation.

² Two of the copies (4Q415 and 4Q416) were rolled in a less common way with the beginning on the inside of the scroll when they were deposited the last time, a fact that probably indicates that these scrolls were still in active reading use by 68 AD: Elgvin, T., ‘The Reconstruction of Sapiential Work A’, RQ 16 (1995) 559–80, p. 565Google Scholar, note 13. Furthermore, probably only copies of the most important books were hidden in Cave 1: Stegemann, H., Die Essener, Qumran, Johannes der Täufer und Jesus (Freiburg/Basel/Wien: Herder, 4th ed., 1994) 89–90.Google Scholar

³ For an introduction to Sap. Work A, see Elgvin, T., ‘Wisdom, Revelation and Eschatology in an Early Essene Writing’, SBLSP (1995) 440–63Google Scholar; idem, ‘Early Essene Eschatology: Judgement and Salvation According to Sapiential Work A’, Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Reynolds, N., Parry, D. A.; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996) 126–65Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Mystery to Come: Early Essene Theology of Revelation’, Qumran between the Old and the New Testament (ed. Th. L. Thompson and N. P. Lemche, forthcoming at Sheffield University Press in the series Copenhagen International Seminar); Harrington, D., ‘Wisdom at Qumran’, The Community of the Renewed Covenant. The Notre Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Ulrich, E. and VanderKam, J.; Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1994) 137–52.Google Scholar

⁴ See e.g. Qimron, E., ‘Celibacy in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Two Kinds of Sectarians’, Proceedings of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Madrid, 18–21. March 1991 (ed. Barrera, J. Trebolle and Montaner, L. Vegas; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 287–94Google Scholar; H. Stegemann, ‘The Qumran Essenes – Local Members of the Main Jewish Union in Late Second Temple Times’, ibid. 83–166, esp. 155–6.

⁵ One fragment (4Q416 frg. 2) preserves major parts of four consecutive columns, two fragments (4Q417 frgs. 1 and 2) each preserve 11/4 column. The rest of the material is mostly minor fragments.

⁶ The original scroll of 4Q417 contained between 17 and 20 columns, each of c. 28 lines of 50–60 letter spaces. The length of this scroll was c. 260 cm (± 25 cm). The 4Q416 scroll contained between 21 and 25 (somewhat smaller) columns and measured between 260 and 300 cm. See T. Elgvin, ‘The Reconstruction of Sapiential Work A’, which also proposes a sequence of the major fragments within the original scrolls.

⁷ is a Hip‘il imperfect of ‘dishonour’ or II ‘disdain’.

⁸ Two preliminary translations of‘new’ Qumran material have been published, which include the larger fragments of Sap. Work A. One should remember that within such a framework the translators could not invest large amounts of work in the interpretation of each text. García Martínez understands from ‘burn’, which is rare in BH, and translates ‘Neither should you lighten a vessel […]’: Martinez, F. Garcia, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated. The Qumran Texts in English (Leiden: Brill, 1994) 384.Google Scholar Wise reads ] and translates ‘do not water down (the contents of) a vessel….[yo]ur Laws…’: Eisenman, R., Wise, M., The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered. The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld for Over 35 Years (Shaftesbury/Rockport/Brisbane: Element, 1992) 248, 254.Google Scholar A careful study of the last lines of this column on the photograph shows that there is no lacuna between the words and (the edge of the fragment is broken and gives the first impression of a short lacuna). Wise possibly interprets as Hip‘il which can have the meaning ‘make a burden lighter’, or as Qal which in Gen 8.8,11 means ‘recede’. Neither of these two translations represents more than a hasty guess.

⁹ So in 4Q417 1 i 3, 416 2 ii 15.

¹⁰ Harrington, , ‘Wisdom at Qumran’, 141Google Scholar; DJD XXXIV (in preparation). I am grateful to D. Harrington and J. Strugnell for sharing with me the preliminary version of their edition of 4Q416. Although they prefer the reading , they do not exclude which they would understand as ‘your lawful wife’. For Strugnell's view, see now ‘More on Wives and Marriage in the Dead Sea Scrolls’, RQ 17 (1996).Google Scholar

¹¹ is a common word for vessel in Qumran literature; ‘weapons’ and ‘vessels of clay’ are frequently found. 4Q159 (4QOrdinances, whose script can be dated to the first half of the first century AD) frgs. 2–4, line 6, quotes Deut 22.5; ‘let not a man's garb be on a woman’. Here means ‘a man's garb’.

¹² Hertzberg, H. W., Die Samuelbücher (ATD 10; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965) 143Google Scholar n. 2, states that is a euphemism for the male organ, and notes, without further references, that a similar use of the Greek σκη⋯оς is often attested. 4QSam^b, a scroll from the late–third century BC, preserves (with LXX) a superior reading of the end of verse 5; ‘If the young men have kept themselves from women, then you can eat from it ()’: Cross, F. M., ‘The Oldest Manuscripts from Qumran’, JBL 55 (1955) 145–77.Google Scholar Talmudic literature understands this verse in its plain sense, see below, n. 22. In contrast, the Septuagint obscures the sense of and the meaning of the whole verse. It renders with σκη⋯η (plur.), but has David answer:‘… the road is secular, therefore it was sanctified today through my vessels’.

¹³ , hand, for penis is attested already in an Ugaritic poem. is used with this same meaning in Isa 57.8 and Cant 5.4, cf. Pope, M. H., ‘Euphemism and Dysphemism in the Bible’, Anchor Bible Dictionary 1 (1992) 720–5.Google Scholar The Temple Scroll, HQT^a 46.13 uses for ‘latrine’.

¹⁴ 1QS 7.12–14/4QD^b 18 iv 9–12: ‘Whoever walks about naked in front of his fellow, without having been forced to do so, he shall do penance for six months. Whoever spits in the course of a meeting of the Many shall be punished thirty days. Whoever takes out his ‘hand’ from under his clothes, or if these are rags which allow his nakedness to be seen, he will be punished thirty days.’ Although these rules about nakedness are generally formulated, they would be particularly enforced in the meetings or meals of the Many. The parallel to the section on meal manners in Sap. Work A is not farfetched.

¹⁵ This use of vas is frequent already in the classical period: Adams, J. N., The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (London: Duckworth, 1982) 41–3.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Amots, D. Ben, Yehuda, N. Ben, The World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang (Hebrew 8th ed.; Tel Aviv: L. Epstein, 1973) 118.Google Scholar

¹⁷ ‘Body’: Tertullian, Chrysostom, Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, Theodoret, John of Damascus, Oikomenios (.PG 119, 85), Theophylact; ‘wife’: Basil (PG 32, 628), Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine. For the patristic references, see Maurer, C., ‘σκη⋯оς’, TWNT 7 (1964) 359–68, p. 366Google Scholar; Galanes, I. L., H ΠPΩTH EΠIΣTO∧H TOY Aπ. πAY7and; OY ΠPOΣ E∑∑A∧0NIKEI∑ (Tessa–lonika: Eκσ⋯σηιςπ. πоυ;ρναρ⋯, 1985) 244.Google Scholar

¹⁸ C. Maurer, ‘оκη⋯оς’; Klassen, W., ‘Foundations for Pauline Sexual Ethics: As Seen in 1 Thess. 4.1–8’, SBLSP (1978) 159–81Google Scholar; Collins, R. F., ‘“This is the Will of God: Your Sanctifi–cation’ (1 Thess 4.3)’, Studies on the First Letter to the Thessalonians (Leuven: Leuven University, 1984) 299–325Google Scholar (first published in LTP 39 [1983] 27–53)Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Unity of Paul’s Paraenesis in 1 Thess. 4.3–8: 1 Cor. 7.1–7, A Significant Parallel’, ibid. 326–35 (= NTS 29 [1983] 420–9)Google Scholar; Yarbrough, O. Larry, Not Like the Gentiles: Marriage Rules in the Letters of Paul (Atlanta: Scholars, 1985) 68–76.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Rigaux, B., Saint Paul: Les Epῖtres aux Thessaloniciens (ÉBib; Paris: Gabalda, 1956) 502–6Google Scholar; McGehee, M., ‘A Rejoinder to Two Recent Studies Dealing with 1 Thess 4:4’, CBQ 51 (1989) 82–9Google Scholar; Lührmann, D., ‘The Beginnings of the Church at Thessalonica’, Greeks, Romans, and Christians: Essays in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe (ed. Balch, D. L., Ferguson, E. and Meeks, W. A.; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990) 237–49.Google Scholar

²⁰ This view is held by Reese, J., 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1979) 44Google Scholar; Whitton, J., ‘A Neglected Meaning for SKEUOS in 1 Thessalonians 4.4’, NTS 28 (1982) 142–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bruce, F. F., 1 & 2 Thessalonians (WBC 45; Waco: Word Books, 1982) 83–4,Google Scholar ‘There is one OT precedent for the use of “vessel” in the present kind of context (with special reference to the genitalia): in 1 Sam 21:5… This is the force of σκη⋯оς here: “that each of you learn to gain control over his own “vessel”’; Wanamaker, C. A., The Epistle to the Thessalonians. A Commentary on the Greek Text (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) 151–3.Google Scholar

Marshall, I. H., 1 and 2 Thessalonians (NCBC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 107–10,Google Scholar does not draw any conclusion in the choice between ‘wife’ and ‘male organ’. Neither do Elling–worth, P., Nida, E. A., A Translator's Handbook on Paul's Letters to the Thessalonians (Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1975) 79–81,Google Scholar although they lean towards ‘possess one's wife’ meaning ‘behave towards his wife in a way which is right before God and before people’. Richard, E. J., First and Second Thessalonians (SP 11; Collegeville: Michael Glazier, 1995) 186–99,Google Scholar goes for ‘body’ without totally excluding ‘male organ’. NAB (1970)Google Scholar translates ‘guarding his member’, while the 1986 edition has ‘acquire a wife for himself’.

²¹ See Strack–Billerbeck 3.632–3. Billerbeck is followed by, among others, Maurer, Klassen, Collins and Yarbrough.

²² b. Meg. 12b (in a quarrel about which nation has the prettiest women):

‘Ahasveros said to them “the vessel which I use is neither Median nor Persian but Chaldean. Do you want to see her?” They answered “Only if we can see her naked.”’

According to b. Baba Mezia 84b (and parallels) Judah the Prince (c. 180 AD) asked the widow of Rabbi Eleazar b. Simeon to marry him, she then sends him the reply ‘should the vessel which has been used by a holy man, be used by a secular one?’ Her vessel had been used by a kohen, and should henceforth not be used by a layman. The saying is so pregnant that the context given to it by the sources must be historical. It alludes to the wording of 1 Sam 21.6 (cf. the words ), and demonstrates that this verse was understood in its plain sense (including in the meaning sexual organ) throughout mishnaic and talmudic times.

²³ Maurer, , ‘σκη⋯оς’, 365–8.Google Scholar

²⁴ The papyrus evidence shows no clear borderline between the use of present and perfect in profane Greek, see Moulton, J. H., Milligan, G., The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non–Literary Sources (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930/1980) 361–2Google Scholar: one of the Tebtunis papyri from 118 BC uses the infinitive κτ⋯σθα in the sense ‘take/have possession of’. Another papyrus from 23 AD uses the infinitive κτ⋯σησθαι with the meaning ‘have’. Moulton/Milligan's own understanding of 1 Thess 4.4 is ‘gradually obtain the complete mastery of the body’. They refer to a papyrus from 164 BC which uses ⋯νακτωμ⋯νоυζ for ‘gain control, recover’. Liddell/Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, 1001, cite Luke 18.12 π⋯ντα ὅσα κτ⋯μαι ‘all that I earn’ as an example of a durative meaning of the present tense of κτ⋯оμαι.

²⁵ Maurer, , ‘σκη⋯оς’, 366.Google Scholar

²⁶ Cf. Theodoret ad locum ‘Some (i.e. Theodore of Mopsuestia) say that “his own vessel” means the spouse. I, however, hold it to be the body of each one which thus shall be governed, as not only the married ones should obey the law’ (О⋯ γ⋯ρ τоῖς γηγαμηκ⋯σι μ⋯νоις τ⋯ν νоμоθησιαν πρоσψ⋯ρηι), MPG 82, 644; similarly Rigaux, , Thessaloniciens, 506Google Scholar. Ellingworth/Nida, Thessa–lonians, 81, try to evade this dilemma with the conclusion that the focus is ‘upon the way a man should behave toward his wife after marriage’.

²⁷ Maurer, , ‘σκη⋯оς’, 367.Google Scholar

²⁸ Poor arguments are easily repeated. Among those who refer to Maurer's argumentation and the alleged parallel between and κτ⋯оμαι are Klassen, , ‘Foundations’, 167Google Scholar; Collins, , ‘The Will of God’, 313Google Scholar; Holtz, T., Der erste Brief an die Thessalonicher (EKK 13; Neukirchen–Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1986), 157–8.Google Scholar The fact is that κτ⋯оμαι only once in the LXX renders the verb .

²⁹ The latter phrase is found in Tob 4.12, T. Levi 9.9–10, 11.1, 12.5 for ‘taking a wife’ (T. Levi 12.4 and 14.6 have λαμβ⋯νηιν ηις γυναῖκα). Plutarch, a somewhat later contemporary of Paul, uses λαμβ⋯νηιν γυναῖκα, Pompey 44.2.

³⁰ ‘Buy/acquire’ or ‘conceive’. The participle can have the meaning ‘be lord over’: Lipinski, E., , TWAT 7 (1993) 63–71.Google Scholar

³¹ Maurer, , ‘σκη⋯оς’, 367Google Scholar, refers to Isa 26.13 LXX, Sir 22.23 πιστνιν κτ⋯σασθαι ‘to keep faith’, Luke 21.19 ⋯ν τῇ ὑμ⋯ν κτ⋯σησθη.τ⋯ςψυχ⋯ς ὑμ⋯ν‘by your patience you will preserve your lives’.

³² Not Like the Gentiles, 7.

³³ Not Like the Gentiles, 70‘This is the Will of God’, 314. Collins criticises the ‘organ’ option because it does not take into account the basically ingressive sense of κτ⋯σθαι. In his own interpretation, however, he seems to combine the ingressive and durative senses: ‘Paul enjoins the Christian, in respect to his own wife, to take a wife and live with her in a sexually active manner “in holiness and honour”’, ‘The Unity’, 335. His translation ‘live with his wife’ can hardly be considered to reflect the ingressive sense of κτ⋯σθαι.

³⁶ Koester, H., ‘I Thessalonians – Experiment in Christian Writing’, Continuity and Discontinuity in Church History. Essays Presented to George Huntston Williams (ed. Church, F. Forrester and George, T.; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979) 33–44, p. 43.Google Scholar

³⁷ ‘A Rejoinder’, 83.

³⁸ ‘The Will of God’, 316. Collins shows at times a remarkable disregard of Paul's Jewish identity, calling him ‘a former Jew formed by the rabbis’, ibid., 308. The author of Rom 9–11 would have voiced a strong protest against such a designation.

³⁹ For a Jewish community this would be obvious. The rabbis viewed bachelorhood after the age of twenty as unnatural. Cf. Apple, R., ‘Marriage, The Concept’, EJ 11 (1971) 1026–31,Google Scholar and rabbinic sayings like ‘He who has no wife is no proper man’, b.Yebam. 63a. According to Acts 17 the community in Thessalonica had sprung from the synagogue, including the God–fearing Gentiles in its periphery. 1 Thess 1.9 indicates that the majority in the community had gentile background. Also in the Hellenistic context bachelors were rare: only in the time of Constantine (320 AD) were laws penalizing childless people and bachelors abrogated. Cf. Collins, ‘The Will of God’, 314.

⁴⁰ ‘The Beginnings’, 246.

⁴¹ ‘σκη⋯оς: A Modest Proposal for Illuminating Paul's Use of Metaphor in 1 Thessalonians 4:4’, The Social World of the First Christians: Essays in Honor of Wayne A. Meeks (ed. White, L. Michael and Yarbrough, O. Larry; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1995) 53–66.Google Scholar

⁴² This theory was developed by Aechelis, H., Virgines Subintroductae: Ein Beitrag zum VII. Kapitel des I. Korintherbriefs (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1902),Google Scholar and has been recently upheld by Hurd, J. C., The Origin of 1 Corinthians (Macon: Mercer University, 1983) 169–80, 276.Google Scholar For a recent critique, see Deming, W., Paul on Marriage and Celibacy. The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1995) 40–7, 205–10.Google Scholar

⁴³ Jensen, J., ‘Does Porneia mean Fornication? A Critique of Bruce Malina’, NovT 20 (1978) 161–84.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Barn. 7.3, 11.9, 21.8. Cf. Lampe, G. W. H., A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Oxford University, 1961) 1236.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Maurer, , ‘σκη⋯оζ’, 359.Google Scholar For Antistios see Beckby, H., Anthologia Graeca (München: Ernst Heimeran, 1958) 16, 243Google Scholar, line 4; Aelianus, , De Natura Animalium 17.11.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ According to Stegemann, the settlement at Qumran was the ‘printing press’ of the whole Essene movement, the place where skins were tanned, scrolls produced and copied, Die Essener, 55–82.

⁴⁷ See Pixner, B., ‘An Essene Quarter on Mount Zion?’, Studia Hierosolymitana I: Studi archeologici in onore di P. Bellarmino Bagatti (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1976) 245–85Google Scholar; idem, Wege des Messias und Stätten der Urkirche (Giessen, Basel: Brunnen, 1991) 180–207; idem, ‘Archäologische Beobachtungen zum Jerusalemer Essener–Viertel und zur Urgemeinde’, Christen und Christliches in Qumran? (ed. B. Mayer; Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1992) 89–113; Riesner, R., ‘Jesus, the Primitive Community, and the Essene Quarter of Jerusalem’, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Charlesworth, J. H.; New York: Doubleday, 1992) 198–234.Google Scholar

Excavations in 1979–81 of the ‘Gate of the Essenes’ (cf. Bellum V, 145) showed that this gate was inserted into the existing wall during the Herodian period, see Pixner, B., Chen, D., Margalit, S., ‘Mount Zion: The “Gate of the Essenes” Re–excavated’, ZDPV 105 (1989) 85–95Google Scholar; B. Pixner, ‘The History of the “Essene Gate” Area’, ibid., 96–104. Pixner's proposal that this gate was built to serve the settlement Herod had invited the Essenes to establish in the northwestern corner of the city, is attractive. The War Scroll, 1QM 3.11 mentions , ‘The Community of Jerusalem’.

⁴⁸ Lund, J. A., ‘The Language of Jesus’, Mishkan 17–18(1992/3) 139–55, esp. pp. 140–5Google Scholar; Qimron, E., DJD 10 (1994) 104–8.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Yarbrough, , Not Like the Gentiles, 73–6,Google Scholar cf. also Wanamaker, , Thessalonians, 154–6.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ I am indebted to the Research Council of Norway for financial support, to Richard Blucher, M.Div., Cand.theol., for linguistic polishing of the manuscript, and to the anonymous NTS reviewer for helpful suggestions.

⁵¹ The preliminary designation ‘Sapiential Work A’ is now replaced by ‘4QInstruction’.