Notes from Limmud 2011

The Book of Jubilees and Rebecca

Rachel Montagu

[Standard disclaimer: All views not in square brackets are those of the speaker, not myself. Accuracy of transcription is not guaranteed. This post is formatted for LiveJournal; if you are reading it on Facebook click on "View original post" for optimal layout.]

[These talk notes date from before I had read the Book of Jubilees myself; see the link at the bottom for my subsequent blogging of my way through the whole book..]

The Book of Jubilees was once better known than it is today.

It was written around 150 BCE. We have it in Latin, Greek and Ge'ez (Ethiopian). It was originally written in Hebrew, though; we know this because it sometimes reflects Hebrew idioms, e.g. eligere in te. Latin does not normally say "to choose in you", but Hebrew does.

Then fifteen to sixteen fragments of it were found at Qumran. This may not sound much, but it's as much as we have of the Book of Genesis; and only slightly behind some of the most common texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Ge'ez versions have checked out as faithful translations.

It's known as the Little Genesis, and repeats the episodes of Genesis up until Moses goes up the mountain.

The very well known Biblical episodes are represented faithfully. The more midrashic bits come into the less well-known parts of Genesis, things the author felt to be less core texts.

The passage concerning the Akeida starts (17:15):

It came to pass on the twelfth of the first month

This is not Biblical! It assumes the Akeida took place on Pesach, rather than Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur as later midrash assumed. For the author of Jubilees, it's a prefiguration of the Paschal sacrifice. It portrays Isaac as an adult, aged twenty-five as against the rabbinic thirty-seven, but at any rate, not a child.

Later on in the story (18:5), the text says:

And the Eternal said to him, "Abraham, Abraham."
And he said, "Here I am", and he said, "Take your beloved son, whom you love, Isaac, and go into the high land, and offer him up on one of the moutnaintains that I will make known to you."
And he arose while it was still dark, at daybreak, and he loaded his ass and took two of his young menservants with him and Isaac, his son. And he split the wood of the sacrifice and he went to the place on the third day.
And he saw the place from afar. And he arrived at a well of water and he said to the young men, "Stay here with the ass and I and the child shall go, and when we have worshipped we shall return to you." And he took the wood of the sacrifice and put it on the shoulder of Isaac his son, and he took the fire and the knife in his hand. And the two of them went together to that place. And Isaac said to his father, "Father." And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said to him, "Behold the fire and the knife and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering, Father?"
And he said, "The Eternal will see about the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And they drew near to the mountain of the Eternal. And he built an altar and he placed the wood on the altar. And he bound Isaac, his son, and he placed him on the wood which was on top of the altar and he stretched forth his hand, and took the knife in order to slaughter Isaac his son. And I stood before him and before Prince Mastema. And the Eternal said, "Speak to him. Do not let his hand descend upon the child..."

It mostly parallels the Bible, with minor deviations, but departs at the end. The "I" in question is the angel who speaks to Moses, who is also the angel who spoke to everyone else in the Bible. And Prince Mastema is Satan, as portrayed in the Book of Job.

17.15:

There were voices in heaven regarding Abraham, that he was faithful in all that G-d told him and that he loved the Eternal and that in every affliction he was faithful. And the prince Mastema came and said before G-d, "Behold Abraham loves his son Isaac, and delights in him above all things. Bid him offer him as a burnt-offering on the altar, and You will know whether he is faithful in everything in which you test him."

1.27:

And [God] said to the angel of the presence, "Write for Moses from the first creation until my sanctuary is built in their midst forever and ever."

In the first quotation, we saw a non-Biblical date. The Book of Jubilees is obsessed with dates, and applies them to everything; it divides time up into forty-nine-year segments, and is told in fifty chapters, corresponding to the Jubilee year.

16:1

And on the new moon of the fourth month we appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre and we talked to him.

The timings of Jubilees are, however, its Achilles heel, as it dealts with a 364-day year, which can be divided into four groups of three months, each of thirty days, plus [four days outside of the system of months]. The problem is, of course, that it does not match reality.

The calendar instituted by the rabbis is not tidy at all; it has seven leap years in nineteen years, but it works. We are still celebrating Pesach in the spring; as opposed to a 364-day year, in which we'd now have now lost the link with the seasons, and would be in the year 5778 [rather than 5772]!

What can we know of the author of the Book of Jubilees? It's clearly somebody who likes and respects the priesthood, perhaps from a priestly family.

Jacob gave all his books and the books of his fathers to Levi his son that he might preserve them and renew them for his children until this day.

R.H. Charles said it was an early Pharisee. But the 364 day calendar is Essene, or at least associated with the Qumran community.

One of the most basic ideas of Pharisaism is that the lex talionis is commuted to monetary compensation. However, the Book of Jubilees is emphatically against this:

21:19 (Abraham's last blessing to Isaac):

Take no gifts for the blood of man, lest it be shed with impunity... the earth cannot be cleansed from the blood of man save by the blood of him who shed it.

If it does originate from the Essene community, this might explain how the book got lost, as they dropped out of history following the destruction of the Temple.

It was written by someone who loved the Sabbath and festivals, and was a great admirer of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs for the example they set.

The book is big on the Seven Noachide Commandments.

The Shabbos amida talks about the Sabbath as being for Jews only. Philo and Josephus talk about the sabbath being observed by all peoples. For Romans the idea of not working one day a week, or keeping food warm in hay boxes was laughable. But they are writing for a Diaspora community, trying to show the importance of Judaism for readers outside of the Jewish world.

The Book of Jubilees does not [lacuna, sc. stipulate that non-Jews should keep the sabbath]; however it does say there is a minimum code that everyone should keep.

The only Noachide commandment given in the Torah explicitly is "He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." The others are given in סֵפֶר עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה.

The Book of Jubilees gives a different list of seven:

And in the 28th Jubilee, Noah began to command his grandsons with ordinances and commandments and all of the judgements which he knew. And he witnessed to his sons so that they might 1. Do justice. 2. Cover their flesh 3. Bless the one who created them. 4. Honour father and mother 5. Love their neighbour 6. Avoid fornication, pollution and injustice—it was because of them that the Flood came across the earth ... 7. Do not eat blood or living flesh.

There's no prohibition here on coveting, and we have love your neighbour instead.

The Book of Jubilees celebrates Hebrew and its importance: 12:26

I opened [Abraham's] mouth and ears and his lips and I began to speak with him in Hebrew, in the tongue of creation...

The Bible shows characters as imperfect characters. Jacob, whose name means "heel", is a heel himself, sometimes. The Midrash shows Esau in the worst possible light. This representation is usually associated with Rome; however this turns up even before the Romans appeared on the scene, in the Book of Jubilees. Esau was, however, associated with the Idumaeans, and they caused a problem (until they were conquered and forcibly converted to Judaism). 31:1

[My notes here say "source 11. 31:1". 31:1 is not relevant (and I no longer have the source sheet), so I must have transcribed it wrong, but see chapters 37 and 38 for a bad portrayal of Esau.]

For the Book of Jubilees, heroes must be completely heroic. Consider Jacob's taking of the blessing meant for Esau. We're told that Abraham saw that Jacob was to be his authentic heir.

Auerbach talks about how the Torah has a very much terser style than, say, Homer. Homer also writes about emotions much more. The Book of Jubilees, being influenced by Hellenistic culture, also does too. The Book of Jubilees does not assimilate the Hellenistic lunar calendar, but does bring in Hellenistic thinking.

There are some puzzles tidied up by the book: What happened to the teraphim Rachel stole from Laban. Why did Jacob go to Bethel? To fulfil a promise to God to wipe out idolatry. Why did Rebecca's nurse Deborah die there? Isaac was too old to go, but he sent Rebecca instead, along with Deborah, who died there.

34:18:

On that day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished, and she died mourning him, and she was living in Qafratef, and Dinah also, his daughter, died after Joseph had perished. And there came these three mournings upon Israel in one month.
For this reason it is ordained for the children of Israel that they should afflict themselves on the tenth of the seventh month—on the day that the news which made him weep for Joseph came to Jacob his father—that they should make atonement for themselves thereon with a young goat on the tenth of the seventh month, once a year, for their sins; for they had grieved the affection of their father regarding Joseph his son. And this day has been ordained that they should grieve thereon for their sins, and for all their transgressions and for all their errors, so that they might cleanse themselves on that day once a year.

Although the festivals come later, the Book of Jubilees reflects them (and the Sabbath) back into the Patriarchal period.

One of the concepts important in Hellenistic literature is of having a good death. Rebecca has a good death here, because she realises in advance we are going to die, and could then put right any unfinished business.

Having done everything as commanded to her by Abraham to make sure the blessing went to Esau, she now wants to right the balance. The night before her death, she dines with her sons and asks Esau to bury her (ch. 35):

Rebecca sent and called Esau and he came to her, and she said to him: 'I have a request to make you, my son; promise to do it, my son.'

He said: 'I will do everything that you say to me, and I will not refuse your request.'
She said to him, 'I ask you that the day I die, you take me in and bury me near Sarah, thy father's mother.'

By asking him to take charge of burying her, some of his status as eldest child reverts to him. A small token of [lacuna, sc. amends-making] for her having wronged him. (Later midrash says exactly the opposite.)

Jubilees is trying to talk about the means of trying to introduce sanctity into life.

[Dead Sea Scroll of Jubilees] Jubilees posts Jewish learning notes index