Jubilees - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

JubileesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: Jubilee (Biblical)

The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis(Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters,considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic,and Eastern Orthodox Churches.[1] Jubilees is considered canonical bythe Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Bete Israel (Ethiopian Jews),where it is known as the Book of Division (Ge'ez: Mets'hafe Kufale).

It was well known to Early Christians, as evidenced by the writings ofEpiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore ofAlexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas,George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also utilized bythe community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was sothoroughly suppressed in the 4th century that no complete Hebrew,Greek or Latin version has survived. There is conjecture among westernbiblical scholars that Jubilees may be a rework of material found in thecanonical books of Genesis and Exodus.[citation needed]

The Book of Jubilees claims to present "the history of the division of thedays of the Law, of the events of the years, the year-weeks, and thejubilees of the world" as revealed to Moses (in addition to the Torah or"Instruction") by Angels while he was on Mount Sinai for forty days andforty nights.[2] The chronology given in Jubilees is based on multiples ofseven; the jubilees are periods of 49 years, seven 'year-weeks', intowhich all of time has been divided. According to the author of Jubilees, allproper customs that mankind should follow are determined by God'sdecree.[citation needed]

Contents1 Manuscripts of Jubilees2 Origins3 Subsequent use4 Content

Jubilees - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilees

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5 Sources6 See also7 Notes8 References9 External links

Manuscripts of JubileesUntil extensive fragments were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls(DSS), the only surviving manuscripts of Jubilees were four completeGe'ez texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, and several quotationsby the Church fathers such as Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen as wellas Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychiusof Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos.There is also a preserved fragment of a Latin translation of the Greekthat contains about a quarter of the whole work.[3] The Ethiopic texts,now numbering twenty-seven, are the primary basis for translations intoEnglish. Passages in the texts of Jubilees that are directly parallel toverses in Genesis do not directly reproduce either of the two survivingmanuscript traditions.[4] Consequently, even before the Qumrandiscoveries, R.H. Charles had deduced that the Hebrew original hadused an otherwise unrecorded text for Genesis and the early chapters ofExodus, one that was independent of either the Masoretic text or theHebrew text that was the basis for the Septuagint. As the variationamong parallel manuscript traditions that are exhibited by the Septuagintcompared with the Masoretic text, and which are embodied in the furthervariants among the Dead Sea Scrolls, have demonstrated, evencanonical Hebrew texts did not possess any single 'authorized'manuscript tradition in the first centuries BC.[5]

A further fragment in Syriac in the British Museum, titled Names of thewives of the patriarchs according to the Hebrew books called Jubileessuggests that there once existed a Syriac translation. How much ismissing can be guessed from the Stichometry of Nicephorus, where 4300stichoi or lines are attributed to The Book of Jubilees.[citation needed]

Between 1947 and 1956, approximately 15 Jubilees scrolls were found in


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five caves at Qumran, all written in Hebrew. The large quantity ofmanuscripts (more than for any biblical books except for Psalms,Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, in descending order)indicates that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of theQumran texts with the Ethiopic version, performed by JamesVanderKam, found that the Ethiopic was in most respects an accurateand literalistic translation.[6]

OriginsThe first biblical scholar to propose an origin for Jubilees was RobertHenry Charles (18551931). Charles proposed the author of Jubileesmay have been a Pharisee and that Jubilees was the product of themidrash which had already been at work in the Old TestamentChronicles.[3] However, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS)at Qumran in 1947, Charles' Pharisaic hypothesis of the origin of Jubileeshas been almost completely abandoned.

The dating of Jubilees has been somewhat problematic for biblicalscholars. While the oldest extant copies of Jubilees can be assigned onthe basis of the handwriting to about 100 BC, there is much evidence tosuggest Jubilees was written prior to this date.[7] For example, the authorof Jubilees seems to be aware of 1 Enoch's "Book of Dreams"; of which,the oldest extant copy (DSS-13 4Q208) has been carbon dated to ca.200 BC.[8]

And yet, many scholars continue to subscribe to Robert Henry Charles'sview that Jubilees could not have been written before the events of 1Maccabees, due to perceived cryptic references within the text. As aresult, general reference works such as the Oxford Annotated Bible andthe Mercer Bible Dictionary conclude the work can be dated to 160150BC.[9]

Subsequent useJubilees was immediately adopted by the Hasmoneans, and became asource for the Aramaic Levi Document.[10] Jubilees remained a point of


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reference for priestly circles (although they disputed its calendricproposal), and the Temple Scroll and "Epistle of Enoch" (1 Enoch91:110, 92:393:10, 91:1192:2, 93:11105:3) are based onJubilees.[11] It is the source for certain of the Testaments of the TwelvePatriarchs, for instance that of Reuben.[12]

There is no official record of it in Pharisaic or Rabbinic sources, and itwas among several books that were left out of the canon established bythe Sanhedrin (possibly at the so-called Council of Jamnia, c 80 AD,though this theory has been largely discredited, see Development of theHebrew Bible canon for details). Sub rosa, many of the traditions whichJubilees includes for the first time are echoed in later Jewish sources,including some 12th-century midrashim which may have had access to aHebrew copy. The sole exception within Judaism are the Beta IsraelJews formerly of Ethiopia, who regard the Ge'ez text as canonical.[13]

The book of Jubilees was evidently held in high regard, and sometimesquoted at length, by some Early Church Fathers. Ethiopian OrthodoxChristians and Beta Israel Jews have continued to consider Jubilees animportant book of the Bible, dictated to Moses, and older than Genesis.[citation needed]

ContentJubilees covers much of the same ground as Genesis, but often withadditional detail, and addressing Moses in the second person as theentire history of creation, and of Israel up to that point, is recounted indivisions of 49 years each, or "Jubilees". The elapsed time from thecreation, up to Moses receiving the scriptures upon Sinai during theExodus, is calculated as fifty Jubilees, less the 40 years still to be spentwandering in the desert before entering Canaan or 2,410 years.

Four classes of angels are mentioned: angels of the presence, angels ofsanctifications, guardian angels over individuals, and angels presidingover the phenomena of nature. Enoch was the first man initiated by theangels in the art of writing, and wrote down, accordingly, all the secrets ofastronomy, of chronology, and of the world's epochs. As regardsdemonology, the writer's position is largely that of the deuterocanonical


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writings from both New and Old Testament times.

The Book of Jubilees narrates the genesis of angels on the first day ofCreation and the story of how a group of fallen angels mated with mortalfemales, giving rise to a race of giants known as the Nephilim, and thento their descendants, the Elioud. The Ethiopian version states that the"angels" were in fact the disobedient offspring of Seth (Deqiqa Set), whilethe "mortal females" were daughters of Cain.[14] This is also the viewheld by Simeon bar Yochai, Clementine literature, Sextus JuliusAfricanus, Ephrem the Syrian, Augustine of Hippo, and John Chrysostomamong many other early authorities. Their hybrid children, the Nephilim inexistence during the time of Noah, were wiped out by the great flood.However, Jubilees also states that God granted ten percent of thedisembodied spirits of the Nephilim to try to lead mankind astray after theflood.

Jubilees makes an incestuous reference regarding the son of Adam andEve, Cain and his wife. In chapter iv (112) (Cain and Abel), it mentionsthat Cain took his sister Awan to be his wife and Enoch was their child.Also, it mentions that Seth (another son of Adam and Eve) married hissister Azura.[15]

According to this book, Hebrew is the language of Heaven, and wasoriginally spoken by all creatures in the Garden, animals and man,however the animals lost their power of speech when Adam and Evewere expelled. Some time following the Deluge, the earth is apportionedinto three divisions for the three sons of Noah, and his sixteengrandsons. After the destruction of the tower of Babel, their families werescattered to their respective allotments, and Hebrew was forgotten, untilAbraham was taught it by the angels.

Jubilees also contains a few scattered allusions to the Messianickingdom. RH Charles in 1913 wrote: "This kingdom was to be ruled overby a Messiah sprung, not from Levi that is, from the Maccabean family as some of his contemporaries expected but from Judah. Thiskingdom would be gradually realized on earth, and the transformation ofphysical nature would go hand in hand with the ethical transformation ofman until there was a new heaven and a new earth. Thus, finally, all sinand pain would disappear and men would live to the age of 1,000 years


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in happiness and peace, and after death enjoy a blessed immortality inthe spirit world."[3]

Jubilees 7:2029 is possibly an early reference to the Noahide laws.[16]

SourcesJubilees bases its take on Enoch on the "Book of Watchers", 1 Enoch136.[17]

Its sequence of events leading to the Flood match those of the "DreamVisions", 1 Enoch 8390. However the direction of dependence iscontroversial.[18]

See alsoWives aboard the ArkGenerations of Adam

Notes^ Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.1.^ Book of Jubilees "Jublees 1:4" (http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/jubilees/1.htm)

2.

^ a b c The Book of Jubilees (http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/jubilee.htm) (Int., tr.), from "The Apocrypha andPseudepigrapha of the Old Testament", by R. H. Charles. Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1913

3.

^ "A minute study of the text shows that it attests an independent form of theHebrew text of Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus. Thus it agreeswith individual authorities such as the Samaritan or the LXX, or the Syriac,or the Vulgate, or the Targum of Onkelos against all the rest. Or again itagrees with two or more of these authorities in opposition to the rest, as forinstance with the Massoretic and Samaritan against the LXX, Syriac andVulgate, or with the Massoretic and Onkelos against the Samaritan, LXX,Syriac, and Vulgate, or with the Massoretic, Samaritan and Syriac againstthe LXX or Vulgate." R.H. Charles, "Textual affinities", in his introduction tohis edition of Jubilees, 1913 [1] (http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/jubilee.htm).

4.

^ Robin Lane Fox, a classicist and historian, discusses these multifarious5.


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sources of Old and New Testaments in layman's terms in UnauthorizedVersion (1992).^ VanderKam, "Jubilees, Book of" in L. H. Schiffman and J. C. VanderKam(eds.), Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford University Press(2000), Vol. I, p. 435.

6.

^ VanderKam (1989, 2001), p.187.^ Radiocarbon, Vol. 37, No. 1, 1995, P.11-198.^ VanderKam (1989, 2001), pp. 17219.^ Kugel, 16710.^ Boccacini 99101, 104113 respectively11.^ Kugel, 11012.^ Miguel Brooks, A Modern Translation of the Kebra Negest p. 181.13.^ Ethiopian Orthodox Church's canonical Amharic version of Jubilees, 5:21 readable on p. 14 of this file. (http://good-amharic-books.com/images/PDFs/3-apoch-2-cr.pdf)

14.

^ Book of Jubilees Virtual Religion (http://virtualreligion.net/iho/jubilees.html)

15.

^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Jubilees, Book of: The Noachian Laws(http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=582&letter=J#1948)

16.

^ Gabriele Boccacini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis (Eerdmans: 1998)17.^ Kugel, 252, n.3718.

ReferencesJames C. VanderKam. The Book of Jubilees (Guides to Apocryphaand Pseudepigrapha) Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.ISBN 1-85075-767-4. ISBN 978-1-85075-767-2.]Martin Jr. Abegg. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. San Francisco, CA:HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0-06-060063-2.James C. VanderKam. The Book of Jubilees. Leuven: Peeters,1989. ISBN 978-90-429-0552-8.James C. VanderKam. The Book of Jubilees. A Critical Text. Leuven:Peeters, 1989. ISBN 978-90-429-0551-1.John C. Endres. Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Jubilees(Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 18) Washington:Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1987. ISBN 0-915170-17-5.Orval S. Wintermute, "Jubilees", in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha,ed. James H. Charlesworth (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985)2:35142James C. VanderKam. Textual and Historical Studies in the Book ofJubilees (Harvard Semitic monographs, no. 14) Missoula: ScholarsPress, 1977.Albert-Marie Denis. Concordance latine du Liber Jubilaeorum siveparva Genesis (Informatique et tude de textes 4; Louvain:


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CETEDOC, 1973)Gene L. Davenport. The Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees (SPB20) Leiden: Brill, 1971.Michel Testuz. Les ides religieuses du livre des Jubils Geneva:Droz, 1960.Chanoch Albeck. Das Buch der Jubilen und die Halacha Berlin:Scholem, 1930.Robert Henry Charles. The Book of Jubilees or the Little Genesis,Translated from the Editor's Ethiopic Text, and Edited withIntroduction, Notes, and Indices (London: 1902).Robert Henry Charles. The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book ofJubilees. Oxford: Clarendon, 1895.August Dillmann, and Hermann Rnsch. Das Buch der Jubilen;oder, Die kleine Genesis. Leipzig: 1874.August Dillmann. "Mashafa kufale sive Liber Jubilaeorum...aethiopice". Kiel, and London: Van Maack, Williams &Norgate, 1859.RADIOCARBON, VOL. 37, NO. 1, 1995, P.11-19. [2](http://www.radiocarbon.org/Journal/v37n1/jull.pdf)

External linksThe text translated by R.H. Charles, 1913, preceded by an accountof the manuscript tradition. (http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/jubilee.htm)Jewish Encyclopedia entry (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=582&letter=J)The Catholic Encyclopedia view (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08535a.htm)Development of the Canon (http://www.ntcanon.org/lists.shtml)Jubilees at earlyjewishwritings.com (http://earlyjewishwritings.com/jubilees.html)Ge'ez text of Jubilees (first page) (http://www.tau.ac.il/~hacohen/Jubil/Jubilp%201.html)Ethiopic Jubilees Reading Guide: 11:1-10(https://www.academia.edu/5955414/Ethiopic_Jubilees_Reading_Guide_11_1-10_The_Rise_of_Civilization)Ethiopic Jubilees Reading Guide: 17:15-18:16(https://www.academia.edu/6136703/Ethiopic_Jubilees_Reading_Guide_The_Aqedah_17_15-18_16)

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