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Beware the Wiles of the Wanton Woman

Dead Sea Scroll fragment reflects Essene fear of, and contempt for, women

By Magen Broshi

Nearly 35 years ago, Bedouin tribesmen searching for more scrolls near the original find on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea discovered the now-famous Qumran cave 4. Cave 4 proved to be the richest of all the Qumran caves, containing fragments of over 500 scrolls. One of the scroll fragments from cave 4 is known as the “Wiles of the Wanton Woman”1 and reflects the Essene fear of, as well as contempt for, women. The text on this fragment is remarkably similar to certain passages from Proverbs; indeed, the Qumran fragment was apparently modeled after chapters 5 through […]

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Endnotes

1.

The scientific siglum is 4Q184. This fragment was first published by J. Allegro in Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1964, pp. 53–55, and later in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert V (1968), pp. 82–85.

2.

This has been shown by J. Richt in an exhaustive study of this poem, combining both insight and erudition, with ample bibliography. Licht’s study is to be found in B. Uffenheimer (ed.), Bible and Jewish History, Tel Aviv 1971, pp. 289–296 (J. Liver Memorial Volume) (in Hebrew).