Aka Zadokite Work, Zadokite Fragments, or Cairo Damascus (CD), this is a document, represented by three sets of ancient manuscripts—two from a synagogue in Cairo, and fragments from three caves at Qumran—describing the organization and ideology of a sect that had broken off relations with other forms of Judaism in late 2nd or early 1st Cent BC Palestine.
The Cairo manuscripts were discovered in 1896 and derive from the 10th/11th Cent., while Qumran's—fragments from ten different copies—from the 1st Cent. BC.
Scholars remain unclear about what specifically the sect represents or their significance in the larger context of early Judaism.
The subject has no tangible significance for preaching.
Bibliography:
J. Baumgarten, E. G. Chazon, and A. Pinnick, eds., The Damascus Document: A Centenial of Discovery. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
P. R. Davies, The Damascus Covenant: An Interpretation of the 'Damascus Document'. Sheffield: 1983.
L. Ginsberg, An Unknown Jewish Sect. Reprinted, New York, 1976.
C. Hempel, The Damascus Texts. Sheffield, 2000.
C. Rabin, The Zadokite Document. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958.
S. Schechter, Documents of Jewish Sectaries: Fragments of a Zadokite Work. Reprinted, New York, 1970.
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