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The Damascus Document (the Cairo Damascus document, CD) or Damascus Rule is one of the most interesting texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls because it is the only Qumran work that was known before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is a composite text edited together from different sections of a larger source, and scholars have attempted to place the different sections in a chronological order to generate a more complete work of the original using evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls. There were a number of fragments from the scroll found in the Cairo Geniza before the Qumran discoveries. The Cairo Geniza was located in a room adjoining The Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, which was gradually stuffed full of papers until it was discovered by European scholar Dr Solomon Schechter in 1897. He found over 190,000 manuscripts and fragments that were written in mainly Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit )〕 The fragments were quite large, and a number of them matched documents found later in Qumran. They were divided into two separate sections, CDa, and CDb. Schechter dated CDa to the 10th century C.E and CDb to 11th or 12th century C.E.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Damascus, Book of Covenant of )〕 In contrast to the fragments found at Qumran, the CD documents are largely complete, and therefore are vital for reconstructing the text. The fragments found by Solomon Schechter in the Ben Ezra Synagogue were originally called the Zadokite Fragments, but after the work was found at Qumran, the name was changed because the document had numerous references to ''Damascus''.〔 The way this ''Damascus'' is treated in the document makes it possible that it was not a literal reference to Damascus in Syria, but to be understood either geographically for Babylon or Qumran itself. If symbolic, it is probably taking up the Biblical language found in Amos 5:27, ''"therefore I shall take you into exile beyond Damascus"''; Damascus was part of Israel under King David, and the Damascus Document expresses an eschatological hope of the restoration of a Davidic monarchy. == Structure == The combined text of CDa and CDb contains twenty columns of writing. As it has come down to us, two columns have been mislocated: columns 15 & 16 originally preceded col 9. Fragments of this text from Qumran include material not found in CD. The document divides into two parts, commonly called ''Admonition'' and ''Laws''. Davies divides the Admonition into four sections: History, Legal, Warnings, a Supplement (which Wise refers to as ''exhortations'').〔Davies 1983, p.52-53.〕〔Wise 1996, p.59.〕 The Laws feature Oaths & vows, Sundry rulings (halakhot), Camp laws, and a fragment of Penal codes (more of which were found in the Qumran fragments). The Damascus Document can be divided into two separate sections of work, The Admonition and the Laws. The Admonition comprises moral instruction, exhortation, and warning addressed to members of the sect, together with polemic against its opponents; it serves as a kind of introduction to the second section. Meanwhile, the Laws looks at this new covenant community expressed to them through the Teacher of Righteousness. It goes into great detail of the different social arrangements that were taking place at the time.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Damascus, Book of Covenant of )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Damascus Document」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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