ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to translate a Hebrew text often results in a kind of vicious circle. A difficulty of this kind has been pointed out in connection with the translation of the Damascus Document. The document referred to is that which has been called The Manual of Discipline, though today preference is given to the title, The Rule of the Sect. But this is not so with the Manual of Discipline, which is a composite work one, moreover, which is marked out as such by the many lines and signs in the margin indicating the beginning of the different fragments copied out one after another, without any connection between them. Even current prayers were at times paraphrased, as the pamphlet incorporated into the Manual of Discipline shows. In a similar manner, Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings were composed in Biblical style and attributed to Jacob, Baruch, Moses, Enoch, etc. Christian propaganda did the same thing.
