Jubilees

From 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 by
the 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 of
Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of
Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas,
George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also utilized by
the community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was so
thoroughly suppressed in the 4th century that no complete Hebrew,
Greek or Latin version has survived. There is conjecture among western
biblical scholars that Jubilees may be a rework of material found in the
canonical books of Genesis and Exodus.
[citation needed]
The Book of Jubilees claims to present "the history of the division of the
days of the Law, of the events of the years, the year-weeks, and the
jubilees 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 and
forty nights.
[2]
The chronology given in Jubilees is based on multiples of
seven; the jubilees are periods of 49 years, seven 'year-weeks', into
which all of time has been divided. According to the author of Jubilees, all
proper customs that mankind should follow are determined by God's
decree.
[citation needed]
Contents
1 Manuscripts of Jubilees
2 Origins
3 Subsequent use
4 Content
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5 Sources
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
Manuscripts of Jubilees
Until extensive fragments were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls
(DSS), the only surviving manuscripts of Jubilees were four complete
Ge'ez texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, and several quotations
by the Church fathers such as Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen as well
as Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius
of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos.
There is also a preserved fragment of a Latin translation of the Greek
that contains about a quarter of the whole work.
[3]
The Ethiopic texts,
now numbering twenty-seven, are the primary basis for translations into
English. Passages in the texts of Jubilees that are directly parallel to
verses in Genesis do not directly reproduce either of the two surviving
manuscript traditions.
[4]
Consequently, even before the Qumran
discoveries, R.H. Charles had deduced that the Hebrew original had
used an otherwise unrecorded text for Genesis and the early chapters of
Exodus, one that was independent of either the Masoretic text or the
Hebrew text that was the basis for the Septuagint. As the variation
among parallel manuscript traditions that are exhibited by the Septuagint
compared with the Masoretic text, and which are embodied in the further
variants among the Dead Sea Scrolls, have demonstrated, even
canonical Hebrew texts did not possess any single 'authorized'
manuscript tradition in the rst centuries BC.
[5]
A further fragment in Syriac in the British Museum, titled Names of the
wives of the patriarchs according to the Hebrew books called Jubilees
suggests that there once existed a Syriac translation. How much is
missing can be guessed from the Stichometry of Nicephorus, where 4300
stichoi 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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ve caves at Qumran, all written in Hebrew. The large quantity of
manuscripts (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 the
Qumran texts with the Ethiopic version, performed by James
VanderKam, found that the Ethiopic was in most respects an accurate
and literalistic translation.
[6]
Origins
The rst biblical scholar to propose an origin for Jubilees was Robert
Henry Charles (18551931). Charles proposed the author of Jubilees
may have been a Pharisee and that Jubilees was the product of the
midrash which had already been at work in the Old Testament
Chronicles.
[3]
However, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS)
at Qumran in 1947, Charles' Pharisaic hypothesis of the origin of Jubilees
has been almost completely abandoned.
The dating of Jubilees has been somewhat problematic for biblical
scholars. While the oldest extant copies of Jubilees can be assigned on
the basis of the handwriting to about 100 BC, there is much evidence to
suggest Jubilees was written prior to this date.
[7]
For example, the author
of 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's
view that Jubilees could not have been written before the events of 1
Maccabees, due to perceived cryptic references within the text. As a
result, general reference works such as the Oxford Annotated Bible and
the Mercer Bible Dictionary conclude the work can be dated to 160150
BC.
[9]
Subsequent use
Jubilees was immediately adopted by the Hasmoneans, and became a
source for the Aramaic Levi Document.
[10]
Jubilees remained a point of
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reference for priestly circles (although they disputed its calendric
proposal), and the Temple Scroll and "Epistle of Enoch" (1 Enoch
91:110, 92:393:10, 91:1192:2, 93:11105:3) are based on
Jubilees.
[11]
It is the source for certain of the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, for instance that of Reuben.
[12]
There is no ofcial record of it in Pharisaic or Rabbinic sources, and it
was among several books that were left out of the canon established by
the Sanhedrin (possibly at the so-called Council of Jamnia, c 80 AD,
though this theory has been largely discredited, see Development of the
Hebrew Bible canon for details). Sub rosa, many of the traditions which
Jubilees includes for the rst time are echoed in later Jewish sources,
including some 12th-century midrashim which may have had access to a
Hebrew copy. The sole exception within Judaism are the Beta Israel
Jews formerly of Ethiopia, who regard the Ge'ez text as canonical.
[13]
The book of Jubilees was evidently held in high regard, and sometimes
quoted at length, by some Early Church Fathers. Ethiopian Orthodox
Christians and Beta Israel Jews have continued to consider Jubilees an
important book of the Bible, dictated to Moses, and older than Genesis.
[citation needed]
Content
Jubilees covers much of the same ground as Genesis, but often with
additional detail, and addressing Moses in the second person as the
entire history of creation, and of Israel up to that point, is recounted in
divisions of 49 years each, or "Jubilees". The elapsed time from the
creation, up to Moses receiving the scriptures upon Sinai during the
Exodus, is calculated as fty Jubilees, less the 40 years still to be spent
wandering in the desert before entering Canaan or 2,410 years.
Four classes of angels are mentioned: angels of the presence, angels of
sanctications, guardian angels over individuals, and angels presiding
over the phenomena of nature. Enoch was the rst man initiated by the
angels in the art of writing, and wrote down, accordingly, all the secrets of
astronomy, of chronology, and of the world's epochs. As regards
demonology, 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 rst day of
Creation and the story of how a group of fallen angels mated with mortal
females, giving rise to a race of giants known as the Nephilim, and then
to their descendants, the Elioud. The Ethiopian version states that the
"angels" were in fact the disobedient offspring of Seth (Deqiqa Set), while
the "mortal females" were daughters of Cain.
[14]
This is also the view
held by Simeon bar Yochai, Clementine literature, Sextus Julius
Africanus, Ephrem the Syrian, Augustine of Hippo, and John Chrysostom
among many other early authorities. Their hybrid children, the Nephilim in
existence during the time of Noah, were wiped out by the great ood.
However, Jubilees also states that God granted ten percent of the
disembodied spirits of the Nephilim to try to lead mankind astray after the
ood.
Jubilees makes an incestuous reference regarding the son of Adam and
Eve, Cain and his wife. In chapter iv (112) (Cain and Abel), it mentions
that 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 his
sister Azura.
[15]
According to this book, Hebrew is the language of Heaven, and was
originally spoken by all creatures in the Garden, animals and man,
however the animals lost their power of speech when Adam and Eve
were expelled. Some time following the Deluge, the earth is apportioned
into three divisions for the three sons of Noah, and his sixteen
grandsons. After the destruction of the tower of Babel, their families were
scattered to their respective allotments, and Hebrew was forgotten, until
Abraham was taught it by the angels.
Jubilees also contains a few scattered allusions to the Messianic
kingdom. RH Charles in 1913 wrote: "This kingdom was to be ruled over
by a Messiah sprung, not from Levi that is, from the Maccabean family
as some of his contemporaries expected but from Judah. This
kingdom would be gradually realized on earth, and the transformation of
physical nature would go hand in hand with the ethical transformation of
man until there was a new heaven and a new earth. Thus, nally, all sin
and 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 in
the spirit world."
[3]
Jubilees 7:2029 is possibly an early reference to the Noahide laws.
[16]
Sources
Jubilees bases its take on Enoch on the "Book of Watchers", 1 Enoch
136.
[17]
Its sequence of events leading to the Flood match those of the "Dream
Visions", 1 Enoch 8390. However the direction of dependence is
controversial.
[18]
See also
Wives aboard the Ark
Generations of Adam
Notes
^ Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayeld. 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 and
Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament", by R. H. Charles. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1913
3.
^ "A minute study of the text shows that it attests an independent form of the
Hebrew text of Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus. Thus it agrees
with 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 it
agrees with two or more of these authorities in opposition to the rest, as for
instance with the Massoretic and Samaritan against the LXX, Syriac and
Vulgate, or with the Massoretic and Onkelos against the Samaritan, LXX,
Syriac, and Vulgate, or with the Massoretic, Samaritan and Syriac against
the LXX or Vulgate." R.H. Charles, "Textual afnities", in his introduction to
his 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 multifarious 5.
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sources of Old and New Testaments in layman's terms in Unauthorized
Version (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.18 7.
^ Radiocarbon, Vol. 37, No. 1, 1995, P.11-19 8.
^ VanderKam (1989, 2001), pp. 1721 9.
^ Kugel, 167 10.
^ Boccacini 99101, 104113 respectively 11.
^ Kugel, 110 12.
^ 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 le. (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.37 18.
References
James C. VanderKam. The Book of Jubilees (Guides to Apocrypha
and Pseudepigrapha) Shefeld: Shefeld 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)
2:35142
James C. VanderKam. Textual and Historical Studies in the Book of
Jubilees (Harvard Semitic monographs, no. 14) Missoula: Scholars
Press, 1977.
Albert-Marie Denis. Concordance latine du Liber Jubilaeorum sive
parva Genesis (Informatique et tude de textes 4; Louvain:
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CETEDOC, 1973)
Gene L. Davenport. The Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees (SPB
20) 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 with
Introduction, Notes, and Indices (London: 1902).
Robert Henry Charles. The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of
Jubilees. 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 links
The text translated by R.H. Charles, 1913, preceded by an account
of 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 (rst 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_Civilizati
on)
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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Texts which have been attributed to Moses
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