1 The Context of 4QMMT and Comfortable Theories * CHARLOTTE HEMPEL I. Introduction Six copies of the so%called Halakhic Letter 4QMMT were found in Qumran Cave 4, and palaeographers have suggested that they were copied over a period of about 100 years or more (ca. 75 BCE % 50 CE). Whether or not the work was composed at Qumran, it was obviously copied over a long period of time and must, therefore, have been regarded as important. The document falls into three parts: a calendric section, a halakhic section, and a homiletic section presented as sections A, B, and C in the   published as volume 10 of the Series Discoveries in the Judean Desert. 1 It is a matter of dispute whether or not the calendric section A at the beginning of the work forms an integral part of the document or not. 2 The halakhic * Outside of the Birmingham conference that gave rise to this volume I presented the material contained in this chapter to the Senior New Testament Seminar in Cambridge, UK, and at the Centre for Judaic Studies at Yale University, USA. I am grateful to Prof. Judy Lieu (Cambridge) and Prof. Steven Fraade (Yale) for their invitations and to the learned audience in both institutions for their contributions. 1 Elisha Qimron and John Strugnell,        (DJD 10; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994). 2 Cf. F. García Martínez, “Dos Notas Sobre 4QMMT,”  16 (1993): 293%297; J. VanderKam, “The Calendar, 4Q327, and 4Q394,” in     ! " #  $  #   %& #  $ "’  ( # )  * (ed. M. Bernstein, F. García