WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN LEGAL AND LITURGICAL TEXTS FROM QUMRAN

The question of "women at Qumran," as E. Schuller has pointed out, was first raised by the initial publication of IQS and its association with the ancient witnesses to the Essenes.' The evidence of the ancient sources about the "celibate" nature of the Essenes appeared to dovetail with the absence of references to women from 1QS. However, when CD and its Cave 4 ancestors (which seemed to present rules for a community of men and women), as well as some of the other ancient evidence were brought to bear, the picture was no longer clear.3 The harmonization of the texts which has generally been presented suggests that lQS presents the ideal prescribed for one form of community which lived a celibate life in isolation, while CD offered