1 Rules of Ancient Communities 6000 Charlotte Hempel A particularly rich repertoire of ancient rule texts has reached us from the caves within and in the vicinity of the ancient site of Qumran on the North Western shore of the Dead Sea. These manuscripts form part of the literature composed, curated, and copied by members of an ancient Jewish movement that came to inhabit the site of Qumran from the first century BCE until the arrival of Roman troops in 68 CE. When we refer to the Dead Sea Scrolls here it is this particular find site in the Judean Desert that we are concerned with. The majority of these manuscripts came to light after their initial discovery and purchase from Bedouin and traders in the 20 th century, with a smaller number of manuscripts excavated by archaeologists and their local staff in situ. Two mediaeval copies of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls containing communal rules—the Damascus Document—were retrieved from the storeroom of a synagogue in Old Cairo known as the Cairo Genizah already in the 19 th century. The two most substantial bodies of communal rules form part of two documents, the Community Rule and the Damascus Document. Both of these texts are attested in multiple manuscripts with at times significant differences. For the purposes of this overview our focus is with painting a panoramic picture, and readers are guided by the literature recommendations to pursue these matters beyond what it is possible to present here. Ancient Communities in the Hebrew Bible It is important to acknowledge that parts of the Hebrew Bible already include rules of ancient communities. The book of Deuteronomy, for instance, contains an account of a community led by Moses who enter a covenant to pledge their loyalty to the Israelite God by observing a series of divinely revealed laws. Furthermore, the book of Ezra-Nehemiah presents us with an