Damascus Document

Berit Damesek

Anonymous / tradition (a Jewish sectarian movement related to, or ancestral to, the Qumran community) · c. 150-100 BC; first known from medieval Cairo Genizah copies before Qumran fragments confirmed its ancient date · Qumran (Israel) · law

The Damascus Document lays out the history, admission rules, and communal law of a movement claiming a new covenant, addressed to members living in scattered "camps" rather than the wilderness settlement the Community Rule describes. The manuscripts survive among the Qumran find, though the text's own "Damascus" is likely a cipher rather than its place of composition.