Biblical allusion, compositional rhetoric and cultic praxis: Decoding the intertextual web in 4Q266

The phenomenon of intertextual formulation in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Damascus Document, in particular, has been the subject of much scholarly attention. One passage whose compositional logic and intertextual matrix have not been fully decoded is 4Q266, frag. 11,11. 3-5, which establishes the efficacy of repentance, sans sacrificial offerings, in securing full expiation for sins. The present essay identifies the web of biblical passages that have informed this passage s formulation and explains the exegetical and cultic/legal reasoning that lay behind this menagerie of biblical texts.