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Home > Magazines > Bible Review > December 1992

Jubilees

How it rewrote the Bible

By James C. VanderKam

The book of Jubilees belongs to a category of literature that contemporary scholars designate by the pleasantly vague tag “the Rewritten Bible.”1 The author of the book, like a number of other ancient Jewish writers, found it convenient to convey his message through an annotated presentation of the older text. In this way he could show that his views arose from the authoritative account and would guide his readers into a proper understanding of it. Jubilees presents itself as a divine revelation that God communicated to Moses through an angel on Mt. Sinai. The book recounts biblical history from […]

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Footnotes

1.

See Maureen A. Tilley, “Typological Numbers: Taking a Count of the Bible,” BR 08:03.

2.

See Ronald S. Hendel, “When the Sons of God Cavorted with the Daughters of Men,” BR 03:02.

3.

Enoch was the seventh descendant from Adam. Unlike other early descendants, the Bible does not say Enoch died; instead it says that after living 365 years, “he was no more, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). In the Book of Jubilees, we learn that he was transported to paradise where he writes down the deeds of humans.

Endnotes

1.

Geza Vermes coined this term in Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies (Leiden: Brill, 1961).

2.

Heinrich Ewald, Zietschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlands, vol. 5, 1844, pp. 164–201.

3.

Fragmenta Sacra et Profana (Milan: Bibliotheca Ambrosiana, 1861) 1.15–54.

4.

Mashafa Kufale sive Liber Jubilaeorum (Kiel: van Maack; London: Williams and Norgate, 1859).

5.

Mashafa Kufale or the Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees (Oxford: Clarendon, 1895).

6.

The Book of Jubilees (2 vols.; Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 510–511, Scriptores Aethiopici 88–89; Louvain: Peeters, 1989).

7.

Translations from the New Revised Standard Version.